Saudi Arabia has failed to enforce sanctions against nationals and organizations that finance Al Qaida. Saudi and U.S. officials acknowledged that a ban announced by the kingdom in 2003 on the transfer of charity funds abroad has been ignored. They said a prominent Saudi fired from a leading charity has continued to relay funds to Al Qaida and related groups outside the kingdom. It was the first time that Riyad and Washington admitted the failure of Saudi enforcement of anti-Al Qaida measures. Over the last two years, the Bush administration has repeatedly praised Saudi decisions to block financing to Al Qaida and related groups. But statements by U.S. and Saudi officials as well as a U.S. Treasury Department communique portrayed a Saudi government unable or unwilling to implement its ban on financiers of Al Qaida. They described a Saudi government-sponsored and -administered charity that ordered its employees to flout the kingdom's decision to halt activities abroad and conceal financing of Al Qaida and related groups under a different guise.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/06/2004 7:53:44 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
They described a Saudi government-sponsored and -administered charity that ordered its employees to flout the kingdom's decision to halt activities abroad and conceal financing of Al Qaida and related groups under a different guise.
Doesn't "government-sponsored and -administered" imply that it's part of the government? Doesn't this mean that the Saudi government ordered people to continue funding al'Qaeda in secret?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
06/06/2004 23:37 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Wow,with a tongue like that I now understand why Muslem women put-up with all the oppresion and murder.Talk about well endowed!
Saudi Arabia has recruited clerics in the war against Al Qaida. Saudi authorities have urged leading clerics to oppose Al Qaida attacks and discredit the religious rulings of Osama Bin Laden.
Cut a few clerics' heads off and you'll be surprised at how the rest condemn terrorism...
The clerics were also ordered to condemn Al Qaida in Friday sermons in mosques. On June 4, Saudi mufti Sheik Abdul Aziz Al Sheik urged Muslims to cooperate with authorities in the war against Al Qaida. The mufti issued a ruling that ordered Saudi citizens as well as residents to report to authorities anybody suspected of helping Al Qaida. "The mufti urges citizens and residents to inform on anyone planning or preparing to carry out an act of sabotage," the sheik said. "This was meant to protect the people and the country from the destructive effects of such actions and to shield the planners themselves from the consequences of their actions."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/06/2004 7:05:43 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
A little bit too late. A month ago, a Westener who understands arabic had to call our compound security to complain about an Iman broadcasting, at the top of his lung, death to Jews, Americans and other infidels. The broadcast was during Friday Prayer in the Mosque that backs up against this camp.
There are more saudis than westerners in this compound, and no a single one of them called to complain against this abuse. Why? Because most of them agree with what he was saying.
BBC cameraman Simon Cumbers has been killed and BBC correspondent Frank Gardner injured after gunmen opened fire near the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Cumbers, 36, was a freelance journalist and cameraman working for the BBC and other news organisations, the BBC said in a statement. Frank Gardner, 42, is a leading expert on al-Qaeda, the statement said. The BBC statement said the two men had travelled to Saudi Arabia last week following terrorist attacks in the city of Khobar and have been reporting from the country for BBC News since then. It said that Mr Gardner was being treated in hospital in Riyadh.BBC Director of News Richard Sambrook said: "Our thoughts are with the families of Simon and Frank tonight. We are in touch with them and offering them all the support that we can." The southern Riyadh neighbourhood where the gun attack took place, al-Suwaydi, has been the location for anti-terror raids in the past, news station al-Arabiya reported. Security sources said the gunmen had escaped and roadblocks had been set up in an effort to catch them, the Reuters news agency reported.
#1
Looks like Nayef's Keystone Kops haven't quite pacified the al Suwaydi neighborhood, yet, in the capitol city of Saudi Arabia. And, again, we see the gunmen got away. Must've had it surrounded.
Odd when Rooters reports on the BBC.
Sympathies to Cumbers' family - and I hope Gardner recovers. I don't doubt that he will have a fresh outlook regards Saudi Arabia, Prince Nayef, and AlQ after this encounter.
#2
.com - I dunno, it didn't change Robert Fisk's mental defects any when he got beat by those morons.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
06/06/2004 20:47 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I am comvinced that the terrorists have pre-determined safe houses to go to after each killing spree. They have hundreds of thousands of sympathizers who would gladly open their houses to them. Some of these neighbourhoods are like laberinths, where in order to find somebody one would have to empty the neighbourhood. Of course, this could never be done because of the great "humiliation" to which the residents would be subjected.
From AP:
An Irish cameraman working for the British Broadcasting Corp. was killed and a British reporter injured in a shooting Sunday in the Saudi capital, just hours after the foreign minister said the kingdom was doing "everything we can" to protect citizens and residents. The BBC identified the dead man as Simon Cumbers, 36, and the injured man as BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner, 42. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw condemned the attack on the two journalists and pledged that Britain "will continue to do all we can to support the Saudi authorities in their fight against terrorism."
MINISTRY of Interior officials are denying reports that suspected extremists exchanged gunfire early Saturday with police.
"Nope. Nope. Never happened."
Conflicting reports emerged that suspected terrorists exchanged shots with police at about 3 a.m. on Tahlia Road near the Lotus Compound. Vehicles involved were identified as a white Toyota pickup truck and a 2002 light blue Mercedes Benz. Another report placed the shootings near the Al-Nada Village at Corniche Road. But Dr. Saud Al-Musaibeeh, the head of the public relations at the Ministry of Interior, denied that incidents occurred, but declined to provide any details of what happened in those areas. However, at one point a chase ensued over a lengthy period of time and at least two gunmen were being sought. The alleged shooting follows a May 29 attack by Al-Qaeda-backed terrorists at the Oasis Compound in Al-Khobar that left 22 people mostly foreigners dead.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/06/2004 2:10:25 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
Saudicut-throatsterrorists militants inspired by al-Qaeda have published a graphic account on the internet of last weekendâs raid in Khobar that left 22 people murdered dead. Western diplomats in Riyadh say it almost exactly matches their own independent findings. It gives an extraordinary insight into the murder killing of civilized human beings non-Muslim expatriates. The militants appear to have been little troubled by the Saudi boy toys security forces as they went about their grisly work on a housing compound. "We had planned to detonate an explosive-laden truck inside the compound", says the statement posted on the internet, "but because entering the compound was so easy there was no need." The account continues: "We entered the compound, checked the identities of the occupants, spotted a Swede, then Nimr" - one of the attackers - "cut his throat. We left the body at the main gate for others to see", it says.
Militantsâ statement
The al-Qaeda-linked militants then say they heard security patrols outside the compound but say the patrols were too afraid to enter until 45 minutes later. "We killed Filipinos and Hindus", says the account. "We went to the hotel on the compound, ate breakfast in the restaurant and rested. We then entered the first floor and murdered killed more Hindus" - meaning Indian workers. It sounds like the militants terrorists we almost as relaxed as the Saudi Security collaborators.
Future threat
The account claims the attackers had time to conduct a live interview with an active collaborator Arab TV station before beating off back a police attack, then killing an Italian. On the Sunday morning, it claims, the group left the housing compound at dawn, with one of their number fatally wounded but taking no hostages with them. Contrary to initial Saudi lies reports.
The account says the militants then watched the TV coverage of the Saudi special forces attacking the hotel hours after they had left. It insists the Egyptian child who was shot dead in the raid was not killed by them. Finally, says the militantsâ message, "we are all well and will continue with such atrocities operations". The Saudi authorities are still making plans about hunting for the perpetrators.
#1
StrategyPage's take is that the Saudis weren't taking part in an inside job, but in fact really are this incompetent ... reportedly non-Muslim witnesses noted that the security forces became particularly lax at prayer time (think Pearl Harbor), and they parked an ambulance across the street from a building they thought was rigged to blow (despite their own doctrine of having it a kilometer away at least).
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
06/06/2004 14:04 Comments ||
Top||
BULLSHIT! The Saudis will love to say that the people massacred in Khobar was due to resentment about the US war in Iraq. I cannot wait to see how they will use that excuse to explain the deaths of Hindus, Sri Lankans, a Swiss, etc.
By Edgar C. Cadano
The Saudi Gazette
THE Philippine Embassy issued a security advisory to all Filipinos in the Kingdom after it received anonymous threats identifying Filipinos as next terrorist targets aside from Westerners. The threat is believed to have come from terrorist groups after reports spread through the Internet alleging that the Filipinos are included among Al-Qaeda targets, along with the Americans and the British, because of the Philippine government s open support to the US war on terror.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said the government would not soften its anti-terrorism stance amid reports the Philippines is number three in the Qaeda hit list. Arroyo said backtracking is not the correct response to such reports but continued vigilance. The Philippine government is taking all steps to protect its citizens, she said. The Philippine Embassy said it has referred the letter of threat to the Saudi diplomatic police.
Vice Consul Adrian Cruz said the threat was received before the Khobar attacks that killed 22 people, including three Filipinos. According to the advisory, the messages are detrimental and damaging to the general standing of Filipinos and the cordial ties between them and their employers. Among other reasons for the threats, the messages cited current directions of Philippine foreign policy in the region. The embassy calls on all Filipinos in the Kingdom to stay calm and take all necessary precautionary measures under the guidelines and in cooperation with the host government and the Philippine authorities. The advisory added that the embassy is confident about the continuing support and protection by Saudi authorities to ensure the welfare and security of its expatriate workforce.
Ambassador Bahnarim Guinomla and other embassy officials met with Filipino community leaders and informed them the embassy has received threats from an anonymous source aside from the warning posted on the Internet. The email is based on information relayed by Saudis listening to a radio program run by a Saudi opposition group. The radio broadcast from London is reportedly used by terrorists to relay their statements a day after the Al-Khobar terrorist attacks. Filipinos are being included in their target (Westerners) because our government openly supports the war against terrorism), reads the email. We are called obedient puppets of Americans and we do not deserve to stay in the Kingdom since the Philippine government openly sides with the United States, it adds.
Posted by: Anonymous4617 ||
06/06/2004 9:27:57 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said the government would not soften its anti-terrorism stance amid reports the Philippines is number three in the Qaeda hit list. Arroyo said backtracking is not the correct response to such reports but continued vigilance.
Anyone else get the feeling that Arroyo has a bigger set than Zapatero?
#4
My husband is one of those westerners who cannot blend. I thought of buying hair dye (the type use in Holloween),instantaneous tanning lotion, a wig, fake mustache and, of course, the arab attaire complete with prayer beads. Growing a beard is out of the questions for him. It will come out red. Do you think this is too much?
I tell you what some westerners are doing (including this family)..we are manufacturing homemade mace...carrying swiss knives, hammers and other meant-to-do-harm- devices.
#5
A4617 - SACO has real hickory axe handles (from their True Value Hardware line, heh) and, IIRC, they are from either Tennessee or Kentucky. Guaranteed to deliver an exceptionally satisfying *smack* if swung with gusto! Approx 38SR Only, heh. I carried one in my car and it fit very nicely along the centerline... Batter up!
But it would be better to boogie, of course, before the shit becomes commonplace. Just my $0.02.
A recent fatwa posted on a popular Islamic Web site in Saudi Arabia explains when a Muslim may mutilate the corpse of an infidel.
Whew! I was hoping someone would clear this up.
The ruling, written by a Saudi religious sheik named Omar Abdullah Hassan al-Shehabi, decrees that the dead can be mutilated as a reciprocal act when the enemy is disfiguring Muslim corpses, or when it otherwise serves the Islamic nation. In the second category, the reasons include "to terrorize the enemy" or to gladden the heart of a Muslim warrior.
There's a fatwa you could drive a donkey through.
Basically, whenever the impulse moves you...
The religious ruling was evidently posted to address questions about the conflict in Iraq, but is not limited by geography. In fact, in each of two gruesome attacks in Saudi Arabia last month that left 25 foreigners and 5 Saudis dead, a Western corpse was dragged for some distance behind a car. One was the body of an American engineer in Yanbu on May 1, the other a British businessman in Khobar last weekend. That a cleric can post such an argument in an open forum goes a long way toward explaining how the most radical interpretations of religious texts flourish in Saudi Arabia.
We've noted here before that any idiot can issue a fatwah, and many idiots do...
Even prayer leaders in Falluja, an Iraqi city not known for its love of things American, were swift to condemn the mutilations of four dead United States contractors in April as outside the bounds of Islam.
Something to do with the nearby location of US Marines. Soodi clerics likewise should be so lucky one day.
Fatwas like this one help pave the way for bloody assaults against foreigners that have plagued Saudi Arabia for the past year, many Saudi intellectuals believe.
Good thinkin'.
The stakes are higher here than anywhere else because the world price of oil hinges on perceptions of Saudi Arabiaâs stability. Still, the government remains overly cautious and completely ineffective in confronting its home-grown radicals, Saudi analysts and even a few princes say, although the security forces have done important work in tracking down extremists. "We are still using soft language when we talk about the problem of Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia," said Suleiman al-Hattlan, a Saudi columnist and author. "We have not addressed the ideology of these groups, which is the same one the government is promoting. They attack just the individuals."
Think you might have fingered the problem there, Sully...
Both the government and its critics point out that Saudi Arabia has come a long way since the attacks against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, when the interior minister would barely acknowledge that most of the 19 attackers were Saudis. The first suicide bombings in Riyadh in May 2003 changed that attitude. In an unprecedented move, the names and even the pictures of the kingdomâs 26 most-wanted men, 18 of whom are still at large, were widely distributed. They include Abdulaziz Issa al-Muqrin, the reputed Qaeda boss in the kingdom, who has gloated on the Internet about the attack in Khobar, in which three of four attackers escaped. But the attempt by some to expose and uproot the ideological and theocratic influences used to justify attacks was suppressed by the religious establishment. Instead, the official line became that the terrorists were infected with an alien ideology, imported by those who fought in Afghanistan or Chechnya, and that the religion espoused by Saudis is a peaceful one. "The problem is that the official religious establishment does not admit that there is a problem inside Wahhabism itself," said Abdullah Bjad al-Otaibi, a former radical turned reformer.
We noted that ourselves.
Important princes echo the official line. "The perpetrators of these heinous crimes are influenced by ideologies alien to our country and to the nature of our people, who throughout the ages advocated tolerance and coherence," Prince Mohammed bin Fahd, governor of the Eastern Province and the son of King Fahd, was quoted as saying in Saudi press reports after the Khobar attacks. Even the most open-minded in the religious establishment are reluctant to concede that the violence within the kingdom might be the fault of Saudis themselves. "Those militants are the outcome of Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, Sharon and the American policy in the region; they are angry against anything foreign and want to retaliate against anything foreign," said Muhsen Awaji, a prominent Islamist lawyer. "It was not Wahhabism which produced them, it is the other circumstances in the region."
"What circumstances?"
"Um, other circumstances."
It's never their fault...
There is no doubt that the United States, by its actions in the Middle East, has helped turn everything American into a target. But there are indications that some Saudis, including some ruling princes, are at least aware that blaming outsiders is not an adequate response to the violence that has come to the kingdom. Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, published an extraordinary article Tuesday in Al Watan, a newspaper run by the descendants of King Faisal, in which he called the domestic Saudi effort against terrorism feeble. "It has nothing to do with America or Israel or the Christians or Jews," Prince Bandar wrote. "So let us stop these meaningless justifications for what those criminals are doing and let us stop blaming others while the problem comes from within us." Elsewhere in the article he noted that the kingdomâs religious scholars "have to declare jihad against those deviants and to fully support it, as those who keep silent about the truth are mute devils."
He's not planning on a return home, is he?
There has, in fact, been a profound silence in the kingdom in the wake of the attacks in Yanbu and Khobar, in which foreigners were the main targets and Muslims were pointedly spared.
That was the whole idea.
Web sites popular with the more religious Saudis brimmed over with condemnation for the April bombing of the traffic police headquarters in Riyadh because all the victims were Saudis, while virtually ignoring the two subsequent attacks. That leads some Saudi intellectuals to conclude that the religious establishment, or at least its more militant elements, basically support Al Qaedaâs goal of driving all foreigners out of the Arabian peninsula and establishing a Taliban-like caliphate.
We've noted that too.
"They know many people support them, so they want to force them into it," said Jamal Khashoggi, who spent many years writing about Islamic militants before becoming an adviser to Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to London. "One of them said to me once, âWe will drag you into jihad by your beard.â ââ
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/06/2004 12:44:27 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
Saudi Arabia has failed to enforce sanctions against nationals and organizations that finance Al Qaida. Saudi and U.S. officials acknowledged that a ban announced by the kingdom in 2003 on the transfer of charity funds abroad has been ignored. They said a prominent Saudi fired from a leading charity has continued to relay funds to Al Qaida and related groups outside the kingdom. It was the first time that Riyad and Washington admitted the failure of Saudi enforcement of anti-Al Qaida measures.
Over the last two years, the Bush administration has repeatedly praised Saudi decisions to block financing to Al Qaida and related groups. But statements by U.S. and Saudi officials as well as a U.S. Treasury Department communique portrayed a Saudi government unable or unwilling to implement its ban on financiers of Al Qaida. They described a Saudi government-sponsored and -administered charity that ordered its employees to flout the kingdomâs decision to halt activities abroad and conceal financing of Al Qaida and related groups under a different guise.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/06/2004 12:32:05 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"'We promised God that we would be back for another battle until we die. Now the whole world knows that our goal is to clean our Muslim land.' "
And here I thought, that the roots of muslim terrorism was America's support for Israel. Do you think that the leftist-useful idiots of the world, who consider Al-Guardian one of the few newspapers that tells the truth, will finally understand the reason behind muslim terrorism? Or will they characterize Al-Guardian as a right-wing-neocon newspaper trying to smear Islam? My money is on the latter.
#3
Talk about the Fractured Fairy Tales from The Dark Side.
Maybe this is a good place to post our little Republic of Eastern Arabia scenario. This comes from either what I know, surmise, or suspect. Experts out there in the various bits should jump in and adjust it as they see fit... Okay, off the top of my head as I recall it:
I've offered the notion a few times that I thought the best military option for us, should seizing the oil producing zone become necessary, would be to use troop rotation(s) out of Iraq as the ideal cover. Stage them in the incredibly convenient locations of Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar. Determine the right mix of forces needed for each phase, and I picture 4: seizure of key facilities, consolidation to include interconnecting North-South pipelines, sweep and clear anyone unwilling to cooperate, stabilize and reinforce positions. We have some authoritative folks hereabouts who could work out the force mix better than I. There are some population centers within the "zone" to consider: Al Khobar, Al Dammam, Dhahran, Jubail, Ras Tanura, Hofuf, Khafji, and Salwa down South. The triangle of Dhahran, Al Khobar, and Al Dammam (approx 20km on each leg) is the largest concentration - maybe 300K total pop. So approx Fallujah-sized. Isolate Khobar and Dammam from Dhahran - there are no facilities in those two pop centers and any pipelines running through must be buried - I've not seen any above ground.
The main opposition consideration is the Emergency Forces concentrations near Dhahran and the old Dhahran Air Base. We used to have to put up with the Saudi AF zooming Aramco with F-15's, F-16's, and Tornados out of there, loud and low over the Core Area. So there's some hardware that would need to be neutralized - and since it seems they almost never fly at night, well, that may not be much of a problem. The ground forces - I can't speak to their capabilities, numbers, equipment, and leadership as well as others. I do think the Mississippi Nat'l Guard could take 'em in a stand-up fight, however. ;->
There's a fine collection of Maps here:
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/saudi_arabia.html
Of course, for it to work and make sense to proceed, you need the production, distillation, pipeline, and terminal opns all secured. If the maps I've seen of the distribution system are still accurate, there is a North-South pipeline network that is easily isolated from the East-West network because, originally, the entire process was handled on the Eastern coast. Only relatively recently has there been major construction of distillation and terminal ops on the West coast to spread out the employment and decentralize somewhat. So there are major crude feeds going West to Jeddah, Rabigh, and Yanbu which would be cut off. And That would be That regards keeping the oil in the Eastern Province where it is produced, refined, shipped.
Note, also, that extracting and shipping crude to the US isn't much of a "fix" unless we are willing to build some refineries - a long-term timeframe problem - cuz I understand our existing sites are running near capacity now and we have to import "finished" products now, such as gasoline and heating oil. Losing the Western refineries means a definite drop in finished products. Perhaps UAE or a toppled Iran could pick up some slack. The first thing I would do politically in the US is to abolish the "boutique" bullshit where damned-near every state has their own "special" gasoline blend. Wotta load.
#7
What? No suggestions, corrections, ideas, force mix, strategy, critiques? Nuttin? Sheesh! C'mon, folks - I know a shitload of people have been to the Magic Kingdom and that a fair proportion served their indentured servitude in Dhahran. So c'mon - pony up the changes, fixes, polish, whatever your expertise and experience tells you needs to be in there. Post as Anonymous, s'okay with me / us, we'd just like to flesh this out into something useful!
#11
What? No suggestions, corrections, ideas, force mix, strategy, critiques?
Start cultivating elements of the Saudi Navy. They're the red-headed stepchild of the military -most sailors are from the fishing villages (generally stationed on the opposite coast they grew up on). But the equipment is modern and they are British and U.S.-trained.
Islamic militants who killed 22 people in a shooting spree in Saudi Arabia a week ago have posted a 3,000-word account of the operation on the internet. The account gives astonishing details of the attack, describing how the killers hunted down their victims, then slept and prayed after decapitating Westerners. It also challenges the Saudi Arabian governmentâs version of events, claiming that pictures of Saudi troops storming a building from the air were stage-managed.
Wouldn't surprise me, not that I'd believe many of the details the Bad Guys post...
The first site targeted was the Khobar Petroleum Centre, which houses the offices of a number of international oil companies. The terrorists, wearing military-style clothing, arrived at the compound around 7am last Saturday. They shot their way in, killing at least one guard, then set about hunting down Westerners. Michael Hamilton, a 62-year-old British oil executive arriving for work, was one of the first to die. âWe saw the car of the British director and we liquidated him,â Nashmi says, before giving gory details of other executions. âWe were asking our brother Muslims, where are the Americans, and they showed us a building where companies have offices. We did find an American,â said Nashmi. âI shot him in the head [which] exploded. Then we found a South African and we shot him too. In our search for unbelievers, we had to exchange fire with the security forces.â Throughout the account Nashmi claims assistance from other Muslims, but the survivors deny this.
The suriving Westerners or the surviving Muslims?
The militants then drove to another complex, where light security made getting in âa walk in the parkâ. They combed offices, rounding up and interrogating people to establish their religion, even lecturing some on Islam. Nashmi describes how they murdered a group of Roman Catholic oil workers from the Philippines, âfor the sake of our brother Muslims [there]â. Such international concerns feature frequently in the account. Nashmi also describes âfinishing offâ a group of Indian engineers. âThanks to God we cleaned our land from unbelievers,â he says.
Also of engineers...
Nashmi also claims that he killed an Italian, after forcing him to speak with al-Jazeera and demand the withdrawal of Romeâs troops from Iraq. The militants then moved into the heavily fortified Oasis Resort, which comprises 200 villas, a hotel, restaurants and spas. There, Nashmi says, they âwent to the hotel, found a restaurant and had a good lunch and some restâ. Then, âwe went to the first floor and we found some unbelievers. We slaughtered themâ. Nashmi denies taking hostages - Muslims were moved to the top floor of a building for their own safety, he says. He also denies killing a 10-year-old Egyptian boy, one of four Muslims who died, blaming the security forces. Witnesses say the boy died when the militants opened fire on a school bus.
Nashmi also claims the dawn raid by Saudi special forces was a âpublicity stuntâ. Pictures of the troops landing on the roof of a building where hostages were being held were broadcast around the world. But Nashmi says his group had left hours earlier. The militants say the Khobar attack was orchestrated by Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, a well-known Saudi-born militant. In a separate statement, published alongside that of Nashmi, Muqrin praised the strike for raising the price of oil. â[The price of] oil reached $42 per barrel, the highest figure in history,â Muqrin says. âThis irks the malicious government that is committed to guaranteeing Americaâs prosperity and the continuation of the oil flow.â
It also puts more money in the princely pocket...
Such claims echo Osama bin Ladenâs charges that the house of Saud, which has ruled Saudi Arabia for more than 70 years, allows the West to deprive the local population of the Arabian peninsulaâs resources.
When you pay for it, you're not "depriving" them of their resources. It's called "buying"...
Some militant leaders are concerned that the accidental deaths of Muslims might turn locals against them. Mustafa Alani, a security expert at Londonâs Royal United Services Institute, said this is already happening in Saudi Arabia. âMost of the intelligence that has allowed the authorities to kill or capture 21 of the 26 most wanted militants in the kingdom has come from ordinary people,â he told The Observer. âOnce the radicals were heroes to local communities, but not any more.â
A little disconnect there. 18 of the 26 are at large, aren't them?
Muqrin is the most wanted militant in Saudi Arabia. He is a veteran of the war in Bosnia and one of a hit squad that tried to kill Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia in 1995. After two years in prison, he was extradited to Saudi Arabia.
Where he was sprung. That worked well.
According to Mohsen al-Awajy, a moderate Islamist who has tried to mediate between militants and the Saudi regime, âintolerable tortureâ at al-Ruweis prison in Jeddah turned Muqrin into âan avenger [and] a killerâ.
Someday a shot in the head will turn him into a corpse. But I doubt it will be Soddy-administered. They're much better at administering intolerable torture.
âHe is shallow, very simple-minded. He has no political brain,â Awajy said. âThis man is like a wounded tiger. He has already decided to die but he wants to kill as many people as possible.â Amid unconfirmed reports of more violence in Jeddah yesterday, Saudi Arabiaâs top religious authority issued an edict urging citizens and residents to report suspected militants planning attacks. No one expects men like Nashmi to pay any attention. In his account he says the group was sure that the high security at the compounds would result in their deaths. âWe didnât want to survive the attack, but God decided that our time is not up yet,â he wrote. âWe promised God that we would be back for another battle until we die. Now the whole world knows that our goal is to clean our Muslim land.â
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/06/2004 12:26:27 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The Sauds began replacing reliable Hindus with Muslim Pakistani workers, over a decade ago. The "Saudization" policy is even more conducive to infiltration.
#2
The Sauds began replacing reliable Hindus with Muslim Pakistani workers, over a decade ago. The "Saudization" policy is even more conducive to infiltration.
Saudi police and suspected Muslim militants exchanged fire in the Red Sea city of Jeddah yesterday and the gunmen were still on the run after an hours-long pursuit, security sources said. The shooting between police and the militants, who were firing from moving cars, came nearly a week after a major al-Qaeda attack in the worldâs biggest oil-exporting country killed 22 people in the city of Khobar. "Police pursued the militants but they managed to escape," one source said. "They are still hunting them down." After initial investigations based on the car license plates, police believed the gunmen were known security suspects but were not thought to be on a central list of 26 wanted militants.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/06/2004 12:11:40 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Reminds me of a lot of bad movies where the cop is chasing some bad guy all over creation, but somehow without a radio or cell phone to coordinate roadblocks, helicopters, etc.
As stated before, when the master creates a monster, feeds the monster, then all of a sudden the monster wants what the master's goods, the monster simply takes them!
That includes the camels as well.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
06/06/2004 1:09 Comments ||
Top||
#3
"Prepare the stun grenades, on three! One, two, three!"
The alleged leader of deadly assaults against foreigners in the Saudi city of Al Khobar tells in a purported interview released yesterday how he and two accomplices escaped from security forces. The version, provided by the man identified as Fawaz bin Mohammad Nashami, contradicts an interior ministry statement and claims that the trio - said to be from the Al Qaeda terror network - had struck a deal for safe passage. The ministry said three of the killers escaped but the leader, one of the most wanted militants in the kingdom, was wounded and captured when Saudi commandos landed on the roof of the building at dawn last Saturday. "It was almost 11:30 at night, the security forces thought we were still in the hotel," Nashami said in an interview released by Islamist sources and posted on websites. In London, The Times newspaper reported that three gunmen were allowed to walk free when they cut a deal with Saudi authorities after threatening to kill more Westerners.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/06/2004 12:18:31 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Why is it that I'm more inclined to believe this than the Saudi version? And why doesn't it surprise me?
Posted by: The Doctor ||
06/06/2004 16:11 Comments ||
Top||
A Melbourne Muslim cleric once accused of having terrorist links has been drawn into a bitter struggle in the Muslim community over his groupâs growing influence. Jordanian-born Sheikh Mohammed Omran last week dismissed criticism of the $2.65 million purchase by his organisation of a Sydney mosque to accommodate its increasing following. Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali, imam of Sydneyâs Lakemba Mosque, told the London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat that despite claims by a group associated with Sheikh Omran that the mosque could be bought by Jews or Buddhists, "no Jewish group is trying to buy the property and they are spreading the rumour just to stir emotions and blackmail the faithful into giving support".
You mean there's something the ev-v-v-v-il Zionists didn't buy?
Sheikh Omran heads the Brunswick-based Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah group. He was one of two Australians cited by Australian Federal Police late last year over alleged connections with an al-Qaeda cell in Spain. He has strongly denied that he was an al-Qaeda operative and said there was no evidence it functioned in Australia. The other man named by federal police at the time, Bilal Khazal, was last week charged with inciting terrorism through a book and website that allegedly encourages war against non-believers. Sheikh Omran said he could not confirm whether Khazal and other alleged terrorists Willie Brigitte, Saleh Jamal, Faheem Khalid Lodhi and Izhar-ul-Haque, had attended his organisationâs Haldon Street prayer hall, in the west Sydney suburb of Lakemba. But he said the hall, which has reportedly been under surveillance by security services, was a public building and it would have been unlawful to bar anyone from it. Sheikh Omran warned authorities against exaggerating the threat of terrorism in Australia and called for increased national security without creating a "threatened and scared" Australian community.
Better to have them fat and complacent. The element of surprise, y'know...
He said it was hard to believe that authorities had been unaware at the time that Jordanian-born Saleh Jamal, 29, - recently charged in Lebanon with belonging to a terrorist organisation and planning terrorist attacks - had fled on a false passport after skipping bail over a shooting at a Sydney police station. Sheikh Omran defended Bilal Khazal. "On the internet there are people to teach you how to make TNT or to make viruses for the computer; how to make every evil thing. Why donât we stop them and take them as terrorists?"
We do, right about the time they connect the blue wire to the post.
He disputed allegations about Pakistani Izhar-ul-Haque, the University of NSW student who allegedly trained for three weeks with Lashkar-e-Taiba.
"Lies! All lies!"
Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah was founded in the late 1980s. Sheikh Omran attributed its popularity to "saying the truth". "God created us to love the truth," said the cleric, who claimed it represented 70 per cent of Australiaâs nearly 300,000-strong Muslim community. Sheikh Omran said the group struggled to accommodate increasing numbers at the Haldon Street hall. He said his was the most influential Islamic organisation in Australia, had international links with 12 nationalities represented on its council and the following of Melbourneâs biggest mosques. "We have followers, believers, worldwide, not (just) Australia-wide... We are a drop in the ocean of the Islamic movement."
That's precisely the problem.
The groupâs 2170-square-metre al-Azhar Mosque in Belmore is close to the largest mosque in Sydney at Lakemba, run by Sheikh Hilali. But Sheikh Omran said it was not a threat to that congregation and his organisation was not seeking to replace Sheikh Hilali. "Well, if we want to do that, we donât buy a mosque," Sheikh Omran said. "We take their mosque. So itâs more easy for us to spend half that amount to move them out and take the mosque. We donât have that intention in our heart at all."
"We don't buy it, we take it." I have no trouble believing him.
A group called the Belmore Islamic Centre, part of his organisation, has allegedly tried to raise millions of dollars in Saudi Arabia to expand its operations in Sydney after paying the deposit on the $2.65 million property deal. Sheikh Omran said the money was being raised in Australia and was not a lot. "What is $2 million or $3 million for a community like a Sydney or a Lakemba community or the Islamic community?" He was not directly involved in the purchase, he said. "I have nothing to do with these matters except supporting and aiding as much as I can." He confirmed that contracts were due to be exchanged at the end of next month and said the mosque could reopen soon after. He was unaware of claims that the Belmore group had told rich Saudis if they could not raise the money by the end of June the mosque could be bought by Jews or Buddhists, he said.
Nice scam, too.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/06/2004 12:22:49 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sheik Omran is also a close personal friend of Abu Qatada, which tells you everything you need to know about him.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/06/2004 2:04 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Bet you the 2.6 mil is coming from Soddi and other such Mohammedan holes.
#3
part of his organisation, has allegedly tried to raise millions of dollars in Saudi Arabia to expand its operations in Sydney
In honor of Ronnie - I can only say two words... Fuel Cells, baby. Fuel cells. Ronnie ended the cold war by building a bigger and better military that ultimately bankrupted the funding of the Communist war machine. We can bankrupt the funding of militant Islam and it's madrassas by building fuel cells.
#4
And what energy source do you propose for the fuel cells? Because most of what I have read assumes the energy magically appears. Otherwise I agree with your sentiment, and the only current technically feasible answer is nuclear power.
Posted by: Phil B ||
06/06/2004 8:03 Comments ||
Top||
#5
peace and love to you phil. Let's just step away from the oil. If it disappeared tomorrow we'd find a way to heat our homes and move our people within a year.
All's I'm saying is let's put our money where it really counts: fuel cells; nuclear; trash conversion; water wheels...what difference does it make? Let's just move away from the oil and let the Saudi princes eat cake.
#6
Theoretically(techologically not feasable,yet)fuel cells can operate on water.
A fuel cell generates electricity by seperating hydrogen fron oxygen,then recombing.With ehaust emisions consisting of water vapor.
The reason gasaline or diseal is preferred for fuel cells now is because of the higher hydrogen content and ease of seperation.I was watching Tactical to Practical(History Channel,hosted by Hunter Elis former FA-18 pilot)The U.S.Army has a couple of fuel cell prototype vehicles up and running.Germany has a couple of subs that operate on fuel cell tech.
#7
Sorry Raptor, but you clearly have no idea how a fuel cell works. A fuel cell works by taking a substance(s) that can be converted into other substances and yield (electrical) energy in the process. An example is hydrogen combined with oxygen to create water and yielding energy.
Fuel cells do not solve the 'where does the energy come from in the first place' problem' and as I have pointed out before they in fact make the problem a lot worse, by requiring substantially more energy inputs. SDB has a good (if somewhat long) post today on this topic.
Posted by: Phil B ||
06/06/2004 10:06 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Raptor is right that we can run fuel cells off water, BUT first the hydro has to be seperated from the water, and this is an energy intensive activity ( more than you get from the hydro in the fuel cell) only way to produce the terrawats we would need is more nuke plants ( or lean how to dig REALLY deep holes)
#9
The problem with alternative energy is that the original energy conversion to get the fuel is expensive. The energy from oil came from the sun millions of years ago. It is in effect a solar energy account that we are drawing from now. To get the hydrogen and oxygen separated from water requires electrolysis, which takes energy from somewhere. TANSTAFL. There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. I learned that in 7th grade.
Steve DenBeste has an excellent essay on the magnitude of the problem. He discusses the problem of converting just 1% of daily US energy consumption to alternative sources.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/06/2004 12:40 Comments ||
Top||
#10
You are so right AP! Rule #1 of thermodynamics is TANSTAFL, Rule #2 says you cannot even break even, and Rule #3 says there ain't no other game in town!
We simply cannot put up enough solar and wind generation to make a decent dent in our huge demand. Their inefficincies and maldistributions would requre even more losses in gigantic energy storage systems.
The only local and short to med term sources are our huge coal supply, the Canuck tarsands, and good old North American uranium. Let's get digging!
From a comment by Jos Bleau at FuturePundit:
Direct carbon conversion fuel cells are likely the best way to double powerplant efficiency.
"The reaction yields 80 percent of the carbonâoxygen combustion energy as electricity. It provides up to 1 kilowatt of power per square meter of cell surface areaâa rate sufficiently high for practical applications. Yet no burning of the carbon takes place.
"âWhat if we could nearly double the energy conversion efficiency of fossil fuels in electric power generation over the conversion efficiency of todayâs coal-fired power plantsâwhich is about 40 percentâand thereby cut the carbon dioxide emissions per kilowatt almost in half?â asks lead researcher John Cooper, scientific capability leader for electrochemistry and corrosion in Lawrence Livermoreâs Chemistry and Materials Science Directorate. âAnd what if we could produce a pure carbon dioxide byproduct for sequestration or industrial use at no additional cost of separation while avoiding the air pollution problems associated with combustion?â
And there's no advantages to large scale operations so powerplants could be much closer to users, cutting distribution/transmission costs while making the whole system much more robust.
More here:
http://www-cms.llnl.gov/s-t/carbon_con.html
#13
gee, if there's no living Saudis, we'd be within rights to take ownership, right?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/06/2004 15:33 Comments ||
Top||
#14
In the long term, we need to squeeze more efficiency from existing petroleum supplies and to develop alternative forms of energy that the whole world can use. This strengthens Japan and emerging nations. Concentrations of energy supply in the hands of psychopaths is not an option. This will reqire the efforts of our best minds. Thought the energy issue is becoming a crisis, I also look at it as a challenge and an opportunity. I do not see the innovative future of US energy being solved by the Dems or Republicans. The people will have to lead in this one. The Dems and Republicans have sold their collective souls out long ago.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/06/2004 15:59 Comments ||
Top||
Spanish police have arrested a Russian woman carrying 38 "pen guns" capable of firing .22 calibre bullets, saying she was part of a Russian-Kosovan gun-smuggling ring. The silver weapons â displayed by police on Thursday â look like normal pens. "I've never heard of anything like this before, at least not in these quantities," a police spokeswoman said. The weapons were illegal and the woman was arrested on suspicion of arms trafficking, she added. Police specialising in criminal gangs from the former Soviet bloc had been following suspects for months before arresting the woman on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said in a statement on Thursday. The 27-year-old woman was also carrying 99 rounds of .22 calibre ammunition, the statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/06/2004 6:47:40 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
France proposed on Sunday that Iraq has to give its agreement to a major operations by U.S. troops in an amendment to a U.S.-British Security Council draft resolution on Baghdadâs future.
Letters from Iraq and the United States, which will be attached to the resolution, say the two countries had agreed on a framework to coordinate military operations and to seek agreement on sensitive political ventures.
But France proposed an amendment during closed-door consultations that would make explicit the powers of an Iraqi interim government, which takes office on June 30.
It says Iraq could decide on whether its own forces would engage in a U.S.-led military operation and "that its agreement will be required on sensitive offensive operations."
It was unknown if the French initiative, which its diplomats say is backed by Algeria, Germany and China, will delay adoption of the resolution the United States hopes will be put to a vote on Tuesday. Sometimes I have the weird feeling that France wants to drive the UN into complete irrelevance. I mean as a deliberate strategy and not as an unintended consequence.
Posted by: Phil B ||
06/06/2004 7:45:10 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sometimes I have the weird feeling that France wants to drive the UN into complete irrelevance.
Why not, Phil B? They've driven themselves into complete irrelevance, after all.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/06/2004 19:47 Comments ||
Top||
#2
It's an attempt by Jacques and Dominique at face saving. Veto it and say "thanks for your input assholes"
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/06/2004 20:26 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I don't know whether to consider this insidious or just pathetic.
#6
We need to air out James Baker's briefcase and shut down these back-stabbers. I was watching the A&E movie recently about Ike and D-Day. Ike's dealings with deGaulle must have made Ike tear his hair, and he did not have that much to spare, IIRC. Do not trust the French govt and consider them an enemy and you will sleep better at night, make things better, save alot of wasted effort and frustration. (/rant)
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/06/2004 21:30 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Nuts!
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
06/06/2004 21:54 Comments ||
Top||
The separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) yesterday said its fighters would attack Pentagon gang hideouts if the group doesnât free its hostages. MILF chairman Ibrahim Murad, reading a statement on DXMS radio, said the rebels are angered by kidnappings by the Pentagon gang â which is on a US list of terrorist organizations â because the military routinely blames the MILF for the abductions. Murad issued the warning three days after still unidentified gunmen kidnapped three telecommunications workers in the southern province of Lanao del Sur.
Police yesterday said the still unidentified gunmen have demanded a ten-million-peso ($178,570) ransom for the three hostages. Regional police chief Senior Supt. Isnaji Bantala said one of the kidnappers, suspected to be a member of the Pentagon kidnap gang, telephoned the families of the workers â two men and a woman â on Thursday, a day after their abduction. The workers were seized in a remote area near Tubaran town as they were inspecting a site for a cellular telephone transmission tower, Bantala said. The police earlier reported that the three were employees of Globe Telecom, one of the countryâs largest mobile phone operators, but Bantala said they worked for a subcontractor of the company. The Pentagon gang is known to be holding a nephew of a hardware store owner and a businessman seized separately in December and February.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/06/2004 4:50:42 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Bearing the 'heat' at hand; I like this kind of intrique. In the end...both sides get waxed!
An independent election count in the Philippines shows President Gloria Arroyo defeated her film star rival Fernando Poe Junior. But it will still be days before the official results are announced. This was supposed to be a quick count to give Filipinos and foreign investors a clear idea of who won elections on 10 May, but it has dragged on, too. Political parties are trading allegations of fraud as the long wait fuels fears of plots and unrest. In Manila students, business people and even nuns have helped Namfrel, an independent watchdog whose count usually mirrors the official results. The volunteers have worked around the clock as election returns trickled in from 35 million voters on several thousand islands. Based on nearly 80% of the total ballots, Namfrel says President Gloria Arroyo looks to have won a fresh turn with 39% of the vote. Her main challenger, action movie star Fernando Poe Junior has 37%. Three others split the rest. Namfrel says it had to leave about seven million votes uncounted because of technical problems, disparities with official numbers and some illegible returns.
PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo - 39%
Film star Fernando Poe Junior - 37%
Former police chief Panfilo Lacson
Former education secretary Raul Roco
Evangelical preacher Eduardo Villanueva
Fears
The slow pace of the official and unofficial counts has fuelled complaints of fraud by opponents of Mrs Arroyo and rumours of plots to destabilise the country. Guillermo Luz, Secretary General of Namfrel, says there were some irregularities, but they all seem to be confined to races for thousands of local posts. The potential for unrest cannot be taken lightly in the Philippines after two people power uprisings and at least nine coup attempts in the last 18 years. While there have been no outward signs of instability, tension is high after the election. The long wait for the official results which are not likely to come until mid-June is only adding to the uncertainty. Looks like itâs almost time to breathe a huge sigh of relief. While there have been moronic lapses by First Man Miguel "Mike" Arroyo, his wifeâs background as a Harvard trained economist is one of the only bright spots in Philippine leadership since the Marcos regime era.
The war on terror will benefit immensely from a stable and properly elected president in this critical Asian ally. There was no such promise forthcoming from a potential Fernando Poe administration. Lack of ability, overreliance upon Estrada cabinet cronies and poorly formulated policy stances all contributed to a perception of Marcos style politics-as-usual.
The Philippine street is most likely less than satisfied, but it remains to be seen whether vital foreign investment has anywhere so negative a view. The Philippines must emphasize a reliable political base for continued economic expansion in order to gain an expanded foothold in both the industrial and tourist sectors. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has demonstrated a solid commitment in the war on terror and made decent strides towards dismantling both the Moro Islamic Front and communist insurgency.
America owes the Philippines increased political pressure upon Malaysia and Indonesia to thwart their constant contributions to regional unrest. Small gestures like rearresting Bashir have helped but there is far to go before any semblance of real progress will be forthcoming from them. The Bali atrocity should have spelled out for once and all just how much there is to lose for those who are soft on terror.
Philippine authorities have arrested an Arab missionary who is suspected of being a member of Osama bin Ladenâs al Qaeda network in the southern island of Mindanao, military officials said on Wednesday. The man, Hassan al-Bakre, 55, was detained by teams of immigration and security officials on suspicion of providing funds to Muslim rebels, said Marine Corps commandant Major-General Emmanuel Teodosio. "He is a suspected member of al Qaeda," Teodosio told reporters in the southern port city of Zamboanga. "We will provide you with more details about the arrest after al-Bakreâs initial debriefing is completed."
"We'd like to clean him up a bit."
Another security officer said al-Bakre was believed to be a Saudi Arabian but authorities were still trying to confirm his nationality. A spokesman for a Philippine Muslim rebel group said al-Bakre was an Egyptian and he had no connection with them or any other militants.
Just a simple fisherman, 10,000 miles from home...
Teodosio said al-Bakre, who was placed under surveillance a month ago, was arrested on Tuesday in a village known as a stronghold of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Muslim separatist rebels. The military said al-Bakre had made trips to Camp Omar, a rebel enclave in the Mindanao region, three months ago where he taught Arabic, Islamic studies and bomb-making. "Based on his own accounts, more than 500 students completed the courses he had supervised," a senior navy official told reporters. He said al-Bakre had identified five Egyptian and seven Indonesian instructors at the MILF camp. But a rebel spokesman said al-Bakre was a fisherman who had lived in the area for a long time and was married to a Philippine Muslim woman. "We have nothing to do with him," said the spokesman, Eid Kabalu. "Heâs not even a missionary."
"No, no! Certainly not!"
"Heâs not a terrorist," said Kabalu. "Heâs a simple-living man. People there know him to be a fisherman, not a bomb-maker."
"He was a quiet man."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/06/2004 1:17:15 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"he taught Arabic, Islamic studies and bomb-making"
all necessary tools for a truly holy man
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/06/2004 11:06 Comments ||
Top||
Malaysia will talk with the Pentagon about increasing anti-terrorist security in the Straits of Malacca, a strategic waterway connecting ports in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, its defense minister said Sunday. The discussions will be held later this month with the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, Admiral Thomas Fargo, Najib Tun Razak told a regional security conference in Singapore. But Najib said Malaysia would not allow any American "troops or assets" to enter the strategic waterway, and that any new security measures would be handled by nations along the straits. Singapore says it is open to American involvement in security in the straits, but the Muslim nations of Indonesia and Malaysia have rebuffed U.S. offers to help provide intelligence, conduct joint patrols and send U.S. Marines into the waterway. Najib said there was a need increase security in the waterway but "not at the expense of territorial integrity." "It will be counterproductive to have foreign ships, or assets in the region," Najib said at the 3rd Shangri-La Dialogue.
"They might do something!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/06/2004 1:28:29 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
where he taught Arabic, Islamic studies and bomb-making. The Wahabi equivalent of the three 'R's.
Posted by: Phil B ||
06/06/2004 4:08 Comments ||
Top||
An Egyptian suspected of Al-Qaeda membership has revealed links between the terror network and the Philippinesâ main Muslim separatist group, the military chief said Thursday.
Another 'dog bites man' story.
Hassan Mustafa Bakry entered the Philippines in 1999 with six other unidentified foreigners and trained local Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas in demolitions in camps on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, General Narciso Abaya said. Bakry, who was arrested in the town of Datu Piang on Tuesday, had even helped to defend the MILF stronghold Camp Abubakar before it fell to government forces in 2000, Abaya said. Abaya said there would be a further investigation of Bakryâs allegations, adding that this issue had already been raised in a joint ceasefire monitoring committee between the MILF and the government. "We have long suspected that there are foreign instructors that were giving instructions on explosives, demolitions and even... in the manufacture of RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades). They do have links to the Al-Qaeda," Abaya added. He expressed hope that Bakry would yield more information after further spirited questioning.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/06/2004 12:48:11 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Is this going to be an annual event?
Iran has hosted its first conference for suicide bombers. The conference was sponsored by the Iranian government and its state-financed Center for the Appreciation of the Martyr. Iranian news media said the conference had gathered candidates from around the world for a meeting in Teheran. The Fars News Agency said the conference was part of the events to mark the anniversary of the death of Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The conference included envoys from a range of Islamic insurgency groups sponsored or financed by Teheran. The conference began on June 2 and included senior commanders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Members of Khomeini's family also addressed the conference.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/06/2004 7:03:39 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Pretty tempting targeting environment. A JADAM would certainly send a message. (/wishful thinking)
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/06/2004 19:13 Comments ||
Top||
#2
think they'll have reunions?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/06/2004 19:21 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Think they give the location / GPS coords of the conference in the full text version (req's subscription)?
A man can have sex with animals such as sheep, cows, camels and so on. However he should kill the animal after he has his orgasm. He should not sell the meat to the people in his own village, however selling the meat to the next door village should be fine.
From Khomeini's book, "Tahrirolvasyleh", fourth volume, Darol Elm, Gom, Iran, 1990
From http://www.homa.org/
Posted by: ed ||
06/06/2004 20:55 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Maybe all of them will blow themselves to hell while 'practising' ,,wishful thinking ...
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
06/06/2004 23:09 Comments ||
Top||
#8
This insane criminal offical act of the Iranian government warrents swift action on the part of our wonderful State Department ...more wishful thinking.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
06/06/2004 23:11 Comments ||
Top||
Iranian Leader Ali Khamenei said that the U.S. is contemptuous of Islam and the sensitivities of the Muslims "because the Americans are convinced that they will easily win the war in Iraq. But they will not see that day. As the Imam [Khomeini] said, 'One day the U.S. too will be history.' In light of what happened in Iraq, we can see now that he is right, because such events move the U.S. down the slope, and they will taste the bitterness of sure defeat." Khamenei condemned the "desecration being carried out by the Americans in the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala in Iraq," and said, "the Muslims will not continue to remain silent in the face of such aggression." Iranian President Muhammad Khatami said, "We condemn all forms of violence, but we must understand that the roots of all terrorist activity lie in the violence of the superpowers⊠It is regrettable that they accuse the [Islamic] religion, civilization, and culture of violence and narrow-mindedness. Nevertheless, I do not deny that there are radicals among the Muslims, or other people in other societies, who act only by violent means. But it must be understood that the spirit of Islam does not preach violence."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/06/2004 7:01:41 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Yes, the U.S. will be part of history - and the present, and the future. I don't think the same thing will be said for the current version of Iran.
Posted by: Just John ||
06/06/2004 19:16 Comments ||
Top||
#2
the U.S. is contemptuous of Islam and the sensitivities of the Muslims
You bet your sweet bippy we are, Ali. Very contemptuous of your so-called "religion" which you use as an excuse to oppress and murder people.
As for your "sensitivities," GROW A THICKER SKIN. You clowns are more sensitive and whiney than a 3-year-old girl. The difference is that most 3-year-olds eventually grow up. Which you clowns never have, especially the men with their constant whining and seething.
they accuse the [Islamic] religion, civilization, and culture of violence and narrow-mindedness
Truth hurts, doesn't it?
the spirit of Islam does not preach violence
Hahahahahaha! Coming from an Iranian "leader," that's beyond laughable.
Bzzzzzt. Your oral diarhhea doesn't pass the giggle test, Al. Stuff a sock in it.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/06/2004 19:45 Comments ||
Top||
#3
ouch! nice rant Barbara
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/06/2004 20:24 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Ms. Skolaut, for these bozos that should be "Bwahahahaha!"
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/06/2004 21:08 Comments ||
Top||
#6
It seems as though some fools beg to be taken out ...i.e., big mouthed mullahs sitting on a sea of oil (which should be under new management....soon!)
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
06/06/2004 21:53 Comments ||
Top||
At the International Conference on the Islamic Republic and Future Outlook, held in Tehran, Iranian President Muhammad Khatamisaid, "Islam encourages people to emulate others without losing their Islamic identity. Thus, we can make use of the achievements of the West, and overcome our shortcomings in various areasâŠ" He added, "We must defend the principle of democracy, which is one of the goals of the Islamic Revolution. This is because defending Islam does not mean rejecting democracy and freedom." Unlike Khatami, who spoke in favor or borrowing Western values and integrating them into Islamic culture, Iranian Culture and Guidance Minister Ahmad Masjid-Jamai said, also at the conference, that "the Islamic Republic regime is a great political phenomenon of the contemporary world, and a living example of the defeat of Western methods and ideas."
Is this a domestic altercation? Should we leave the room?
Posted by: Fred ||
06/06/2004 6:59:27 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Does anyone else think that Islamic speeches and apologists use a lot of logically impossible ideas?
I don't think you can use the technology and advances of the West properly without adopting some of their systems. This is not cultural imperialism, but rather a recognition of the fact that something like a computer is the culmination of a thousand different contributions of a thousand different minds in a thousand different fields over thousands of years. Western society produces these kinds of products because we allow for the free thinking and inquiry which leads to discovery, to research, to knowledge. You ain't gonna find anything like that in the Qu'ran. On its own, the Muslim world could never have come up with half of the stuff the West has, because it simply does not have the free thought infrastructure that makes our own civilization possible.
And you cannot integrate the technologies without either accepting some of the ideas or perverting them - and with the latter, eventually people are going to notice and not be very happy.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
06/06/2004 22:54 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"Emulate"
Pfeh, not likely.
"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."-Twain
In an address to the organizers of the annual ceremony commemorating the 1989 death of Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said that "[Ayatollah Khomeini's] thought corresponded to the Islamic political thought, which he defined as the pure Islam of the Prophet Muhammad." Khamenei stressed the need for instilling Khomeini's doctrine in the coming generations, and said, "Loving the Imam Khomeini without understanding his political thought is inconceivable⊠Despite the propaganda [against Khomeini's thought by his opponents], his political thought is appropriate to humanity's primary needs, because the source of all human torment and suffering is the 'liberal democracy' promoted by the West as 'progressive political thought.'
"The torment of the Iraqis, of the Palestinians, and even of the Americans are the direct outcome of liberal Western democracy, and this must serve as an important lesson to the rest of the world, [which must] open its eyes and understand that those who call themselves advocates of human rights and democracy are in fact the main supporters of crimes against humanity⊠The reason for [this] disgrace [i.e. Abu Ghureib] is [the fact that] liberal democracy is devoid of morality, while the political thought of Imam Khomeini respected morality in addition to democracy, and at the same time pinned its hopes on God."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/06/2004 6:58:15 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I am convinced. Ayatollahs Khomeini and Khamenei, show us kufir the way to morality, Islam style.
Ayatollah Khomeini:
A man can have sexual pleasure from a child as young as a baby. However he should not penetrate, sodomising the child is OK. If the man penetrates and damages the child then he should be responsible for her subsistence all her life. This girl, however does not count as one of his four permanent wives. The man will not be eligible to marry the girls sister.
From Khomeini's book, "Tahrirolvasyleh", fourth volume, Darol Elm, Gom, Iran, 1990
Posted by: ed ||
06/06/2004 20:12 Comments ||
Top||
(Jihadists are hitting their new prime soft economic target OIL related sites. Are we viewing shades of the future in the United States?)
Massive explosion has hit an oil storage depot three kilometers away from the city of Neftekumsk of the Stavropol region in Russia. The explosive device went off under one of the oil tanks at the storage facility. The building went into flames. The incident occurred at 03:00 AM MSK. There were 5 000 tons of oil in the reservoir in time of the explosion. Upon their prompt arrival, officers of the criminal investigation department found another explosive in the building. By 07:20 AM MSK the fire was fully extinguished. There has been no information regarding victims>of the explosion. "Luckily, oil leakage has been avoided due to a ditch around the oil tank," reported a guard of the oil storage depot. The explosion followed by strong fire did not pose a threat to residents of the neighboring village of Kamysh-Burun, informed a source at the regional department of emergence situations. Police instigated a criminal case of "terrorism". Purified oil is transported from the storage depot to the city of Buddenovsk by train. From there it is being transferred to Tikhoretsk (of the Krasnodar region). Afterward, it travels to Novorossiiskâs sea port and from there it is being exported abroad.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
06/06/2004 9:51:23 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Twenty-four Iraqis were killed and many injured in the violence-wracked country on Saturday and Sunday. Thirteen policemen were killed and 10 wounded in a gun and bomb attack on a police station in Musayyib, 50 kilometres south of Baghdad, medical sources and the US military said on Sunday. âWe received 11 corpses and two others were sent to Hilla, just north of Mussayib,â said Dr Bashir Hussein at the local hospital. âAll the bodies were horribly charred and mutilated,â he said.
The US military said militants attacked the police station at 4:20pm (1220 GMT) on Saturday with small arms fire and lobbed a bag of explosives that demolished the buildingâs facade. Later on Sunday, militants detonated a car bomb outside an Iraqi-US base at Taji, just north of Baghdad, killing nine people and wounding 61 others as attacks intensified ahead of the formal end of the US-led occupation on June 30. A statement purported to be from a group headed by Islamist militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the car bombing, describing it as a suicide attack. Two Iraqis were killed in the accidental firing of RPGs from the old regime in the central city of Kut on Sunday, an Iraqi paramilitary commander said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/06/2004 9:26:35 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Islamic rebel violence is again on the rise in Algeria after a series of daring attacks on the powerful military, raising questions about the governmentâs drive to bring peace to the strife-torn north African country.
Guess they're back from Chad, huh?
Some 20 soldiers, paramilitary and police officials were killed and around 40 injured in ambushes over the past week, most attributed to Algeriaâs top rebel group linked to al Qaeda. The army has launched a massive operation to catch the attackers. But no militant is believed to have been captured in the attacks. "The terrorists are doubling in audacity and activity, striking across the national territory and have acquired an incredible assault power," influential independent newspaper El Watan wrote in an editorial on Sunday. "One certitude isnât escaping citizens: the civil concord (amnesty law) hasnât at all achieved its objectives," it said. Contrary to the wishes of many of its members, leaders of the al Qaeda-aligned Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) fighting for a purist Islamic state are against any peace move, according to analysts and security experts. "The leaders are trying to stop members from defecting and the attacks suggest theyâre putting down their mark and showing theyâre a force to be reckoned with," said a Western diplomat.
But the fact that the attacks dropped off while they were off on their central African adventure suggests the remaining organization isn't all that big...
But government-critical newspaper Liberte on Sunday attacked the national reconciliation plan as playing into the rebel hands and questioned the governmentâs silence over recent killings, particularly the ambush which killed 10 soldiers and injured 16. "Itâs the hour of great fraternity with the Islamists, reconciliation with the throat slitters and (rebel) surrenders," Liberte mocked. Foreign investment is coming back and many Algerians are focusing on the fruits of a return to a certain normality as is witnessed by new shops, restaurants and night clubs.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/06/2004 7:02:29 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
The Palestinian Authority and the Arab League on Sunday, June 6, dismissed as "null and void" Israel 's five-decade jail term against Palestinian lawmaker Marwan Barghuti and demanded his immediate release.
Lemme think, here.... Ummm... No.
"We reject this sentence and do not recognize this unfair decision," Palestinian Premier Ahmed Qorei told Voice of Palestine radio, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP). "Barghuti is a member of the Palestinian parliament and a national leader and the Israeli occupation forces have no right to sentence him." A Tel Aviv court had earlier in the morning slapped five life terms and two additional 20-year terms against Barghuti for his alleged involvement in a series of "murders".
Posted by: Fred ||
06/06/2004 6:45:27 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Barghouti also rejected the Israeli court, after which, he was freed sent to the big house. It seems it doesn't matter what he or the Paleos think anymore
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/06/2004 19:01 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"We reject this sentence and do not recognize this unfair decision," Palestinian Premier Ahmed Qorei told Voice of Palestine radio, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
JPost - Reg reqâd
The cabinet voted in principle Sunday to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, exactly 37 years after Israel conquered it on the second day of the Six Day War. By a vote of 14-7, the cabinet â sans the fired tourism minister Benny Elon and transportation minister Avigdor Lieberman, both of National Union â approved the resolution. The resolution was opposed by five Likud ministers: Ministers-without-Portfolio Uzi Landau and Natan Sharansky, Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz, Health Minister Dan Naveh, and Internal Security Minister Tzahi Hanegbi; and by Construction and Housing Minister Effi Eitam and Social Affairs Minister Zevulun Orlev of the National Religious Party. Likudâs Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, and Education Minister Limor Livnat decided in the end to support the resolution, after days of negotiations over a compromise hammered out by Immigration Absorption Minister Tzipi Livni.
According to the resolution, the government approved the staged disengagement plan, while noting "There is nothing in this [decision] to [enable] evacuating settlements." At the same time, the resolution approved implementing the preparatory work necessary to evacuate the settlements. "After the preparatory work is completed, the government will reconvene in order to hold a separate discussion and decide whether to evacuate settlements, which settlements, and at what pace â dependent on the conditions at the time," the resolution read. In other words, according to a senior cabinet official, the government approved the principle of evacuating the 21 Gaza settlements and four more in northern Samaria. It just put off voting on the implementation of this decision for another six or nine months, depending on how long it takes to draw up the necessary legislation dealing with compensation, resettlement, and other connected issues. *snip* looks like Sharonâs got his agreement - wall âem off and let em kill each other
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/06/2004 5:30:33 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Brother Sharon understands the niceities of parlimentary cabinet debate.... he reminds me of an LBJ with para wings.
#2
This is good news. Israel has started the process. The sooner they are out of Paleo land, the more they can concentrate on their own country. Let the worthless NGOs have the Paleos. They need a management change if they are going anywhere but down, but that is their problem.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/06/2004 19:17 Comments ||
Top||
It doesnt even abate after his death. How can they delude themselves so badly? Denver post message board:
Re: Ronald Reagan, 1911-2004
On this day, the hawks, not to mention Saddam Hussein, will mourn the death of yet another warmongering President.
Mr Reagan will not be forgotten for ignoring the plight of those Americans suffering with AIDS.
He will not be forgotten for his involvement in the obscene Iran/Contra affair.
May he rest in peace (even though he denied peace for so many others).
Posted by: Anonymous American 82 ||
06/06/2004 5:29:27 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I was surprised at the negativity of comments even at Winds of Change! But then I reflected on the revolution this man started. Before he came to office the leftists had firm control of all three branches of government for most of 50 years, not to mention the Soviet Union. Today, they are only barely holding onto what remains of their influence in the judiciary and the Soviet Union is a bad memory. Quite a fall in 20 years. And primarily because of him. No wonder they still smart when his name comes up. They also hate that his standing will only rise as they leave academia and the children who grew up in his America start to write history.
Posted by: Mr. Davis ||
06/06/2004 18:22 Comments ||
Top||
#2
you would think Leftys would appreciate rewriting history, they are so proficient at it....
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/06/2004 18:27 Comments ||
Top||
#3
touche
Posted by: Mr. Davis ||
06/06/2004 18:32 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Ronnie always got the last laugh. I am sure he will have a great influence in heaven also. So when it comes time for these leftist pinko commie worshiping pukes, I can imagine Ronnie looking over to St Peter and giving the thumbs down when they come knock knock knocking on heavens door!! The trap door will open and down they go into the Government worshiping place known as HELL!!
#5
Mr Reagan will not be forgotten for ignoring the plight of those Americans suffering with AIDS.
Yep. President Reagan ignored it so bad it became the most highly funded disease in existence, catching it entitled you to protected minority status, and every American household received an education brochure about it, how it's spread, and how it's not spread.
If only President Reagan had paid as much attention to the plight of AIDS sufferers as, say, Saint Castro! Then all the AIDS patients would be safe and sound within their concentration camps dedicated hospitals, left to die alone receiving the best medical care available!
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
06/06/2004 18:58 Comments ||
Top||
#6
What I cannot understand is the venom and hatred these people have. Do they honestly believe the things they say?
When Carter, Clinton, or even Ted Kennedy to pass away, I would not post such crap and spew such hatred. I'd try to say at least some of the good that each has done - and in the case of The Swimmer, I'd even go out of my way to look hard to find the good things he might have helped do.
They are so twisted, bilious and self poisoning. It boggles my mind - I cannot concieve allowing myself and my world to be so warped by hatred.
#7
they don't deserve the "people" designation, they've chosen to become subhuman
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/06/2004 20:28 Comments ||
Top||
#8
OldSpook, the answer is cognitive dissonance. Marxism and consequently all its variants teaches that social forces, not individuals shape history. So when an individual like Reagan comes along and both tries and succeeds in shaping history it threatens to undermine their worldview, and as a consequence they lash out with venom and denial.
Posted by: Phil B ||
06/06/2004 20:28 Comments ||
Top||
#9
There's another factor at work, too - and it also shapes the hatred of Bush.
Reagan had moral clarity. He felt, thought and said: some things are right, some things are wrong, some things are simply evil and must be opposed.
Strikes at the very core of the post-modern relativistic world view. And it would be amusing - were it not so sad and alarming - to see how un-nuanced the resulting reaction is. Sigh.
#10
What I cannot understand is the venom and hatred these people have. Do they honestly believe the things they say?
Yes.
Posted by: Rafael ||
06/06/2004 22:14 Comments ||
Top||
#11
I wonder if the greater problem is that these people like to think everything's fine, that everyone's harmless, but screwed up in a way such that only THEY and their "ideas" can fix it (i.e. take power and do the dictator thing). They want influence. They will say whatever they need to, do whatever they can to discredit those who are more capable, more intelligent, more grounded, and more sane. Dissonance is the right word for it; they want the world a certain way, and will do whatever they need to do to make it that way, yet they also don't want things to change (complaining about going to war, etc.). They work more through subversion than overt action, because they know, on some level, that if they were to openly declare what they really believe, they'd be tarred and feathered.
I'm becoming convinced that the difference between liberals and conservatives in a nutshell: conservatives are grounded in reality, liberals are stuck in a fantasy world.
Phil, in addition to the problems that liberals' cognitive dissonance creates when a great man like Reagan comes along, there's the tiny dilemma of the collapse of their wonderous Soviet Union, which he helped to bring about.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
06/06/2004 22:25 Comments ||
Top||
#12
conservatives are grounded in reality, liberals are stuck in a fantasy world.
It's not fantasy that the Reagan administration sold weapons to the Iranians. It's reality.
And it's also not fantasy that Reagan didn't even mention AIDS in public until October 1987. By the end of that year almost 30000 Americans had died of that growing epidemic.
If the *SARS* epidemic had struck USA and killed tens of thousands in a few years -- can you imagine a modern-day American president not being quite a bit faster than Reagan was in talking about it?
Reagan confronted the Soviet Union and the world must be grateful to him for *that*. But he *did* also support the Islamofascists of Irani with weapons, and he did fail to give a damn about AIDS until many many years had passed.
#13
Aris, nobody was doing anything about AIDS back then, we had Nuclear Annihilation to worry about, not how people were having sex. Also, what makes you think it would have done any good? The millions of condoms we give to Africa and Billions of dollars we spend in warning the whole bloody continent haven't worked a bit.
As for Contra-Iran scandal, he stepped up and took responsibility for it even though he didn't know until it was too late! Lets face it, the hostages were released in Iran under that deal right after Reagan was elected. But he hadn't taken office yet. The thing everyone forgets is that it was still ol' Jimma's term when the deal was made. If it's not AIDS it's scandals, not scandals then it's war, not war then it's not making war. What's next, you going to blame him for alienating the USSR in the 80's?
Posted by: Charles ||
06/06/2004 23:08 Comments ||
Top||
#14
Pro-Euro liberal like Carter appeals to folks like Aris. They can do no wrong, even when they have done wrong, right Aris?
#17
And bananov, btw, you are a quite good example of why I have contempt for so many people here. Not only do you talk out of your ass, not only do you generalize and offend, you also choose to take the role of the mindlessly sycophantic chorus.
Check the accuracy of my facts versus Charles', *then* play the part of the yes-man.
#19
'Anonymous American' How dare you even breathe the name 'American' after that hate speech against President Reagan.
The Iron Lady, one of the UK's all time great insightful leaders stated the following:
âPresident Reagan was one of my closest political and dearest personal friends.
âHe will be missed not only by those who new him and not only by the nation that he served so proudly and loved so deeply, but also by millions of men and women who live in freedom today because of the policies he pursued.
âRonald Reagan had a higher claim than any other leader to have won the Cold War for liberty and he did it without a shot being fired.
âTo have achieved so much against so odds and with such humour and humanity made Ronald Reagan a truly great American hero.â
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
06/06/2004 23:47 Comments ||
Top||
#20
Aris, you shit-for-brains fuckface and pucker sucker of old men, where did Charles or Badanov say "Iran-contra" didn't happen in '85?
Moron.
#22
Mark Espinola - I think Anon American was the one who posted this - not the one who wrote it. The writer is some pogue over at the Denverpost.com message board.
#26
When ones insults another, then you better apologize to them if they simply "made a mistake".
Therefore I'm expecting apologies from badanov and abaddon. And I'm extending my own apology to Charles whom I unfortunately grouped with badanov after being angered by the latter's utter assholey moronicness and lackey-dom.
#30
So, I'm expecting an apology from "someone" as well, for calling me a "lying turd" when I actually spoke the truth, and when it was he that linked to lies.
Will I get such an apology? Highly unlikely. Anything is allowed when people have to defend their fanaticism after all, right?
#32
Here you go, Aris, and I'll expect an apology from you for being too much of a crusty cusk to do your own googling.
http://www.timeswatch.org/articles/2003/1217.asp
#34
abbadon> I've wasted quite a lot more time of my life googling up correct info and offering it to intentionally ignorant asses over here than I see fit. I have offered statistics, I have offered factual info, I have offered pieces on human rights and political progress when most others here just like to generalize and stereotype. When others talked about the european constitution as a thing of the twilight zone I was giving you links to specific articles -- when others talked out of their asses about the accession treaties of the EU I was linking to them.
So, abaddon, screw you dearie. If I cared enough about the accuracy of info I give, to look up three different version of the same state of the union address, then it's NOT me who should apologize for not caring enough for truth.
#35
Let me get this straight... Charles and Badanov got cussed out for being wrong (among other things) when they really weren't that wrong, and I have to offer apologies for cussing out the cusser outter?
That's a mighty interesting logic you've got there.
#36
What do you expect, Aris, when you advocate the EU's corporatist fascism over and over again on this board? You are always going to projectile vomit on advocates of individual liberty and genuine humanism. It took me about 5 minutes to find out the information on the February speech via Google, from sites not beholden to fond memories of Ronnie Reagan.
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
06/07/2004 0:49 Comments ||
Top||
#37
No, Badanov got cussed out for insulting me. And he and Charles were as wrong as you can get.
You on the other hand have to offer apologies for saying "Aris, you shit-for-brains fuckface and pucker sucker of old men, where did Charles or Badanov say "Iran-contra" didn't happen in '85? Moron.
To which I responded "When they blamed Carter for it. Moron."
Ernest Brown, the page "someone" linked to, claimed that it was the State of the Union address said these things. How *exactly* was I supposed to guess that it wasn't the State of
the Union address afterall? I checked the address of the next year in case the author had simply messed up the date. But it wasn't that.
As for the "corporatist fascism" crap, screw that. It's not me in this forum who'd been disappointed that the Turkish generals wouldn't be overthrowing the Turkish democracy any time soon in order to install pro-US position. It's not me in this forum who'd been ecstatic at how czar-like tyrannical Putin is. It's not me who's urged for people of opposite opinions to be rounded up and imprisoned, for American citizenships to be taken away of people who've not supported Bush or whatever.
So don't even pretend to claim that I've ever advocated fascism. EU has been a force for good in *defeating* all remaining fascist tendencies in eastern Europe and Turkey -- as you could have seen in Freedom House.
But hey, it's not me who's supported strengthening the dictatorships and semi-dictatorship of the new Soviet block, as a way to defeat the democracies of the EU either. That was other people in this forum.
#41
.com> Yeah, I'm keeping the link also. So that whenever you lie again (as you've lied in the past) about how I supposedly never recognize any mistake I make, I will be able to gleefully point you to this thread and show your lies for what they are.
Aris The Grate - What's funny is that the one time I well and truly fucked up in a discussion with you, it was precisely the same sort of situation - I didnt follow the links all the way out, made matter of fact statements that were wrong, and you skewered me good for it. And I stopped when I realized I had fucked up.
Here, though the topic is quite different, the result is the same. You fucked up. Factually. S'okay, even the Never FACTUALLY Wrong Aris The Grate sometimes fucks up - and is FACTUALLY wrong.
Had you STFU and taken it like a man, I wouldn't have said a word. But your ego exceeds you IQ by a far wider margin than I suffer from, so you began weasling around, mewling about this and that being at fault, not you, then shifting the topic off your mistake, and whining about other shit.
You are a cowardly sort. Gutless. Before, I merely disliked your BS. I now disrespect you.
No one in Rantburg should ever engage or address you or anything you post, ever again, as you've shown yourself unworthy of notice.
Get a fucking credit card and make a big donation, son. You've been living off of Fred and the rest of us far too long.
#44
To much energy is wasted on the goat fucker....
Greek boy is delusional, and is part of a oxymoronic socialist confused cluster fuck of countries. Greeks are ingrate sodomists.
#45
I didnt follow the links all the way out, made matter of fact statements that were wrong, and you skewered me good for it.
No, I skewered you good NOT because you were simply "wrong" or had failed to follow links all the way out, but because you had repeatedly insulted me when I had (initially) politely attempted to correct you. You had repeatedly attacked me when I had done nothing but offer truth. In particular you had said
"Lol! Aris, you're so full of bullshit it's amazing. Did a little Googling, did ya, on David Glasser? Pfeh, you're a disingenuous goof: it was David GlassNer, not Glasser, that your boy Mohammad "Adam" linked to. Who is a kid attending MIT. Next time you wanna bluff or post bullshit, go more than one level into it, K? Wotta joke."
And when I offered you again the specific links that proved you wrong, you refused to apologize yet again and insulted me some more, accusing me of some sort of obscure conspiracy. In particular you said: "You brought Glasser into this because either you're a twit cuz you don't pay attention or you're a disingenuous blowhard and he's just a canard."
And then a third time we had repeated the exercise -- I offering you info, you insulting me because they were sheer factual truth.
And then a fourth time.
This was the thread: http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.asp?HC=Main&D=2004-04-11&ID=30223
In *this* thread on the other hand, I've been called "a sucker pucker of old men" by abaddon because I said that Charles and badanov didn't know that Iran-Contra happened long after the end of the Carter administration.
Which indeed they didn't know.
In short, in both times I've been insulted by idiots for offering truth.
And in contrast, *I* accepted my mistake when I was offered the link that showed me wrong, and you on the other hand simply chose to insult me ten times with each link I gave you. Which btw didn't require any search at all, a single click would have shown your mistake.
As opposed to me, who would have had to guess which speech this Reagan thing was about because the links I was first offered were wrong.
#46
You disagree that when I realized I was wrong I stopped. Okay, I'm guilty. In that thread I fucked up and took too long to realize it. When I realized I was wrong I stopped. I certainly did not try to pawn my mistake off on you or anyone else.
And what you've posted negates nothing I said about you and your behavior in this thread. You have yet to accept your mistake without prevarication and weasling. Ironic you should use the word, for you've demonstrate what a hypocrite you are for precisely the same reasons you throw at me. I fucked up - and so did you. I accepted my whipping - and here you are STILL mewling like a fucking child and attempting to obfuscate in order to avoid your moment. Gutless coward. Fuck off, you've had enough time and chances, now.
Now get a fucking credit card you leech and pony up a big donation to Fred, who is too courteous a host to ban you, for your incredibly windy posts on RB. Or are you without honor, as well? Hell, don't answer, just do it.
That pretty much covers it. Aris, you don't exist.
#47
There's a big difference between expressing temporary anger at a faithless "ally" and wishing for the permanent repeal of individual freedom for an entire continent, but then you never were very nuanced, eh Aris? Turkey, at least, had a legitimate complaint against us for leaving them in the lurch after Ozal helped us in GWI.
It's funny how making high-sounding noises about freedom is an avocation of Euro-statists, but the muscle to actually accomplish anything along those lines comes from across the Atlantic. From the point of view of a classical liberal, it's too bad that the EU doesn't see individual liberty as the paramount value for its own putative "citizens." How wonderful for the EU to replace overt dictatorships with its own brand of Kafkaesque boot-stamping-into-a-human-face-forever bureaucratic tyranny. Color me unimpressed.
As for -you,- Aris, your addiction to tu quoque is just one of the reasons that you are met with derision. The fact that you attack "nationalism" while kicking up your nativist bigotry and ethnocentrism to the level of the EU instead of Greece is a big laugh, for a start, and just why we're skeptical of the Union's "ability" to solve the "problem" of "nationalism"...
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
06/07/2004 9:34 Comments ||
Top||
#48
You didn't stop, dearie, when you realized your mistake. As I said you insulted and kept on insulting. Even after you supposedly "recognized your mistake" you kept on insulting and lying. After "recognizing your mistake" instead of apologizing, you started lying about me instead, claiming that I had somehow called myself error-free, a lie of yours that you keep on repeating through insinuations in following threads and this one also.
You say I'm "weasling"? No, I'm not. I accepted the mistake I made and unlike you I did *not* insult people for correcting me. I did insult them for being moronic trolls and petty bullies however.
And unless Fred appointed you his manager of finances, stop the whole "shaming" attempt that basically goes "only the prosperous are allowed to post here, so you should be ashamed that you don't have a credit card".
#49
There's a big difference between expressing temporary anger at a faithless "ally" and wishing for the permanent repeal of individual freedom for an entire continent,
Yes, there indeed is. For example the way that several people here want a forced dissolution of the EU, against what is currently the desire of most EU citizens seems to me like a desire on your part to repeal freedom throughout the European continent.
The fact that people seriously said that you should look into supporting the dictatorial neo-Soviet block (Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, central Asia) against the EU is further proof of that.
The fact that people here wanted the Turkish generals to overthrow Turkey's democracy in order to install pro-US positions is also proof of that. That's not simply "temporary frustration". That's being enemies of freedom and democracy, except when it suits your purpose. And in case people hete yet again "accidentally" "misunderstand", I'm not talking about the *US* being such an enemy of freedom and democracy, I'm talking about those people here who advocate these things.
It's funny how making high-sounding noises about freedom is an avocation of Euro-statists, but the muscle to actually accomplish anything along those lines comes from across the Atlantic.
Yeah, Europe is militarily weak. We know that. It's also somehow irrelevant to the indisputable fact that the EU has supported and helped democracy and individual liberties throught the Union. Every EU citizen (and even beyond that) knows that they can appeal to the EU court, if their rights are violated on a national level. Every progress in favour of freedom in Turkey in the last years has to the greatest extent been because of the influence of the EU.
But I guess Turkey isn't part of the real world, so democracy and freedom there don't count. Democracy and freedom and being a force for good is important only in the places where the Bush administration says it's important, right?
So, as one-eyed as always, you only see what USA is doing currently in Iraq, and fail to see what the EU is slowly but steadily accomplishing in half a continent.
How wonderful for the EU to replace overt dictatorships with its own brand of Kafkaesque boot-stamping-into-a-human-face-forever bureaucratic tyranny
Oh, what nice big words, all serving to hide the plain fact that the EU has increased, not limited freedoms. Freedom of transportation. Freedom of employment. Freedom of even non-nationals to vote in their place of residence.
I notice you don't mention any actual examples to the contrary. Any examples where the EU is limiting citizens in a way that the nation-states wouldn't have been able to.
The fact that you attack "nationalism" while kicking up your nativist bigotry and ethnocentrism to the level of the EU instead of Greece is a big laugh,
EU is a good first step towards the right direction -- currently the topmost possible, as a global community of democracies doesn't seem accomplishable. I'd have deserved the "big laugh", if I had wanted it to stop at the EU level. Or if I had gleefully desired the dissolution of the USA, the same way people here have asked the dissolution of the EU.
But my argument is constantly in favour of the voluntary union of democratic peoples.
#50
Aris, I was going to slap you around a little for being the cause of this thread going on far to long, to too little result. But I found I agree with your last post and the future does lie with democracies meeting certain standards working together to solve the world's problem (and I accept that democracies disagree). Of course this requires the dissolution of the UN.
Posted by: Phil B ||
06/07/2004 10:08 Comments ||
Top||
#51
Despite all the bandwidth and effort expended to research "facts" and sling them around in this debate, I have not learned anything new, having heard it all before 20 years ago. Circumstances change dramatically, but the one constant is that the left hates Republican presidents. It is fascinating, if depressing, to watch the replay of the same old leftist seething under Bush.
#52
"but the one constant is that the left hates Republican presidents"
Actually on the whole I more like than dislike Reagan. He may have been horrible with the Middle-east but he did what he should with the Soviet Union. So, the balance falls more on his favour than against him.
And if I'm part of the left you are referring to, then I have to say that I love Lincoln, also a Republican. :-)
#53
I don't know if you are of the left or not Aris. I was referring mainly to several posts here quoting DU type blog sites. Another way of making my point is that the real debate is about values, not facts, and that is why these debates are endless. I remember the debates during Reagan's time. The left had their issues, Iran/Contra being perhaps the most significant one, but those things seem to have faded in importance in the light of history and in the light of Reagan's character. Having observed politics over some 40 years now, I find that the only reliable predictor of attitudes is which side you are on, not what the facts or circumstances are.
Considering the fact that the EU parliament has bupkis to do with the real power of the EU apparat, I don't believe that the "voluntary union of democratic peoples" in a classic fascistic bureaucracy is going to facilitate anything other than the manipulation of the system that France and Germany are committing right now. As for the EU court, I'm sure that it will be just as effective at protecting the rights of EU citizens as the World Court at the Hague is in prosecuting Slobodan Milosevic.
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
06/07/2004 11:54 Comments ||
Top||
#55
P.S. ...and if anyone was stupid enough to think that the Turkish Generals were that much more sympathetic to allowing us through Turkey to attack Iraq, then I say let them stew in their own juices like you, Aris.
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
06/07/2004 11:59 Comments ||
Top||
#56
Don't refer to the EU court as a thing of the future whose effectiveness in protecting rights "will be" or "won't be". It has been protecting them already.
The last 30 years Greece has been experiencing some of the longest and most stable democracy in its history. As in *ever*. Personally I blame it on the EU. I have seen quite well the forces that'd have been more than glad to overthrow freedoms -- and I have seen how it's been the EU's presence that has hindered them at each turn until democratic maturity slowly (but even now, not yet completely) took root in Greece. Every would-be tyrant, on the right or on the left, knows that if they push too far towards restrictions of freedoms, they will be taken to the EU court.
THIS ISN'T A HYPOTHETICAL! It has happened already.
"Considering the fact that the EU parliament has bupkis to do with the real power of the EU apparat"
Considering the fact that the elected governments of the member-states do however have lots and lots to do with the real power of the EU apparat...
The system is currently confederal, rather than federal. Both true and unfortunate, and the democratic deficit is real -- but that doesn't make the voluntary union any less voluntary. Remember all those polls yesteryear?
#57
"Both true and unfortunate, and the democratic deficit is real -- but that doesn't make the voluntary union any less voluntary."
One can eliminate one's freedoms via the democratic method quite easily.
"Remember all those polls yesteryear?"
A tragic example of short-term thinking vs. the long term freedom to develop economies and a wish for the false promise of cradle-to-grave social "democracy" which is not sustainable on actuarial or economic grounds is hardly grounds for celebration.
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
06/07/2004 12:22 Comments ||
Top||
#58
"Both true and unfortunate, and the democratic deficit is real."
And the increase in bureacratic fasicsm will never diminish, only grow worse. I'm hardly interested in mooing "EU bad, US good," the increase of the bureaucratic state is bad enough here. It's going to be (and is now) disasterous in Europe.
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
06/07/2004 12:26 Comments ||
Top||
#59
Check out the following article on EU featherbedding and nepotism, especially the end!:
Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha and rebel leader John Garang on Saturday signed a declaration recommitting themselves to a series of peace protocols and officially launched a final round of talks aimed at ending 21 years of civil war. Taha and the head of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army signed the Nairobi Declaration on the Final Phase on Peace in Sudan in the presence of Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki in his Nairobi offices. The declaration encapsulates deals struck over the course of two years of talks on issues such as power and wealth sharing and the establishment of a six-year interim period of autonomy for south Sudan. The final round of talks covers a comprehensive ceasefire and technical aspects of its implementation. Actual negotiations are due to resume on June 22. The documents we have just signed with Vice President Ali Osman Taha represent a solemn declaration on our part that war in Sudan is truly coming to an end, Garang said at the ceremony, marked by ululations and cheers. Some northern Sudanese mingled with their southern counterparts to dance and sing freedom songs, a rare sight in the vast country with deep religious and cultural differences.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/06/2004 2:11:55 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Despite intense media speculation, mystery surrounds a group of men arrested in April in northern Tajikistan and charged with various crimes, including the murder of local Baptist pastor and missionary Sergei Besarab last January. Several local politicians told Forum 18 News Service that most of those being held for Besarabâs murder and on other charges are devout Muslims. Media reports -â Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Russian RIA Novosti news agency among them -â described the men as members of a previously unknown underground Islamic terrorist movement, âBayatâ (an Arabic word meaning oath).
But others have voiced doubt, saying the suspects are simple criminals. One Baptist told Forum 18 that Besarabâs killing was a deliberate attack on the local Christian minority in the northern Tajik town of Isfara, located in one of the most devoutly Muslim regions of the former Soviet republic. Interior Ministry investigators in Isfara have refused to discuss the case with Forum 18 before their investigation is completed. Besarab was shot dead during the evening of Jan. 12 after unknown intruders armed with automatic weapons burst into the yard of the Baptist church in Isfara. Besarabâs active missionary work -â which included distributing Tajik-language Christian leaflets to residents -- had aroused some anger; only a week before he was killed, the local newspaper Nasimi Isfara published an anonymous article sharply criticizing his missionary work and pointing out that he had four criminal convictions (which, Baptist leaders say, preceded Besarabâs conversion to Christianity).
On April 12, Tajik secret police arrested 20 people on suspicion of committing criminal offenses to incite racial and religious tension, including Besarabâs murder and arson attacks on several mosques whose imams were believed by the attackers to demonstrate excessive loyalty to the Tajik government. According to a statement from Tajik officials, the detainees put up armed resistance and weapons were seized when their homes were searched.
Tajikistanâs secret police admitted they had no prior knowledge of a Bayat movement. Some sources claim that Bayat members have nothing to do with two other Muslim groups better known in the region, the banned Hizb-ut-Tahrir party and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, nor is Bayat affiliated with the only legally active Islamic organization in Tajikistan -- the Islamic Revival Party. Others claim Bayat members were among the local people who fought for the Taliban in Afghanistan, some of whom are now held at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. These sources maintain there may be a link between Bayat and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, whose members have been very active in the neighboring Fergana valley and also fought for the Taliban. "The Tajiks got on with Sergei Besarab very well and we didnât have any problems with Muslims," a member of the local Baptist community, Svetlana Drygina, told Forum 18 May 24 in Isfara. All the neighbors, she noted, had attended Besarabâs funeral. At the same time, Drygina said she is convinced Besarabâs murder was directed against the local Christian community. "Sergei often drove out of town, traveling to unpopulated areas where it would have been much easier to kill him. But someone wanted Sergei to be killed right in the church."
Naim Sameyev, a government official in the Sogd region of northern Tajikistan and a member of the Islamic Revival Partyâs ruling body, noted that of the six people under arrest suspected of murdering Besarab "unfortunately all of them are respected and very devout people." He told Forum 18 on May 22 in the village of Chorku, 10 miles south of Isfara, that one of those being held, Hodi Hatayev, is an imam in the village. Sameyev also admitted that another of those arrested is a member of his party. "I donât know anything about the other detainees, but I can say with assurance that the member of our party is innocent." Most of the men being held for involvement in Besarabâs murder hail from Chorku, where 93 percent of the voters supported the Islamic Revival Party in the 2000 parliamentary elections.
Abdusator Boboyev, the head of the Islamic Revival Party in the Isfara district, confirmed that most of those arrested on suspicion of Besarabâs murder are devout Muslims. He added that the man suspected of being the actual murderer, Saidullo Madyerov, is the son of the former imam of Isfaraâs central mosque and one of the townâs most knowledgeable theologians. "Thus far it is hard for me to draw any conclusions," he told Forum 18 on May 23 in Isfara. "I can only say that genuine Muslims condemn terrorism."
Both Boboyev and Sameyev were adamant that they had never heard of the Bayat movement and suspected that it had "simply been dreamt up by journalists." Isfaraâs mayor, Muzasharif Islamuddinov, said he did not understand where journalists got their information about the existence of an underground terrorist Bayat organization in Isfara. "As far as I know, those suspected of killing Besarab have committed crimes before, and all of them are just criminals," he told Forum 18 in the town May 24.
Islamuddinov questioned the genuineness of Besarabâs faith, pointing to his four prison terms. "One may well ask why he had decided to engage in missionary work here in Isfara, where there are virtually no Russians." The major alleged that Besarab might have been attracted by Isfaraâs location, equidistant from Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. "This is a very convenient staging post for drug trafficking," he told Forum 18. "Besarab used to deal in drugs before he became a pastor. Isnât it logical to assume he had simply become a rival to some criminal drug barons?" The leadership of Tajikistanâs Baptist Union denies the allegation, pointing out that although Besarab was a criminal he underwent a spiritual rebirth in jail. "We conduct services in prisons and indeed it was there that we met Besarab," Rashid Shamsizade, a Baptist pastor from the capital Dushanbe, told Forum 18 in January. "After he got to know the Bible, he became a completely different person -- he was indeed born again." After release from prison, Shamsizade said, Besarab had become an active church member and was soon sent to Isfara as a missionary.
Radio Libertyâs Tajik-language service, which was among the first to mention the Bayat organization, has stood by its story. "We received information that the Baptist pastor had been murdered by members of the extremist Bayat organization from a reliable source ...,â Salim Ayubzod, senior broadcaster at the Tajik service, told Forum 18 on May 25 from Prague. "But clearly, the authorities felt it necessary not to announce this information, at least until the investigation was complete."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/06/2004 1:29:43 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Bayat -- from the Arabic word for an oath of allegiance, an important concept in early Islamic history -- burst onto the scene on April 12, when Tajik prosecutors announced the arrest of 20 people in the northern Isfara district. The suspects are charged with crimes ranging from arson to murder, and specifically the January 12 killing of Baptist pastor Sergei Bassarab. A April 27 report by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) summed up the little that is known about Bayat. IWPR cited unnamed security sources who describe a radical Islamist organization with possible ties to the Taliban and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a group that has been linked to Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. But Tajik officials have provided scant additional information, and the report closes with a statement by prosecutors that Bayat was merely "a group of hooligans who have no political motives."
Those looking to trumpet the arrival of a dangerous new extremist group do not have to manufacture evidence. According to a April 24 article in Tajikistanâs "Leninabadskaya pravda," Bayat has been the object of a five-month-long investigation by the Prosecutor-Generalâs Office and Interior Ministry that has resulted in 25 criminal cases against seven individuals who have admitted ties to the IMU. The article describes Bayat as a group that arose in 1992 and fought in Tajikistanâs 1992-1997 civil war on the side of the United Tajik Opposition. Its leader today is 48-year-old Hodi Fattoyev, also known as Qori Hodi. Many members of the group apparently received a religious education in Saudi Arabia.
Other alleged links to the Arab world go beyond education. Avesta news agency reported on 20 April that Tajik special services do not rule out a link between Bayat and Bayâat al-Imam (which can be roughly translated as "the oath of allegiance to the prayer leader"), an Arab extremist group linked to Abu Muâsab al-Zarqawi, whom U.S. forces allege to be the commander of Al-Qaeda operations in Iraq. Abdallah Abu Rumman, a Jordanian newspaper editor, told "Al-Sharq al-Awsat" on March 8, "I met Abu Muâsab al-Zarqawi [in prison] in September 1996. He was the leader of a group of political prisoners who called themselves âBayâat al-Imam.â" Abu Rumman also notes that Hizb ut-Tahrir, a nonviolent Islamist group banned in many countries for its radical goal of reestablishing a caliphate throughout the Muslim world, maintained a presence in the Jordanian prison where Al-Zarqawi was an inmate in 1996-1999.
Even more sensational details emerge from a lurid series of articles in Kyrgyzstanâs "Vechernii bishkek." A April 13 article described Bayat as a "terrorist organization whose tentacles have encompassed all of Central Asia." The article continues with a breathless excursion into the radical underbrush, replete with an extensive clandestine recruiting network, military training camps in Afghanistan, and a veritable army of "trained combatants...merely awaiting the signal to bomb Tajikistan from within."
It is perhaps worth noting that most of the preceding is little more than conjecture. First, Tajik officials have made conflicting statements about Bayat. The 20 April report by Avesta news agency cites one source in the Prosecutor-Generalâs Office as saying that Bayat "is nothing but a hooligan group that has no political purposes," and another source in "Tajik special services" as saying that there may be links between Bayat and Bayâat al-Imam and the IMU. When Nabijon Rahimov, a prosecutor in the Soghd Region where the Bayat arrests took place, gave a news conference on 18 May, he would say only that "the investigation is not over yet," Avesta reported.
Second, the link between Bayat and Bayâat al-Imam is nothing more than a semantic coincidence in the absence supporting evidence. As IWPR reported on 27 April, Bayat appears to be specific to the village of Chorkuh, "where Islam is unusually strong." Nothing else would seem to indicate a larger broader presence. At the 18 May news conference, Rahimov stressed that all 18 Bayat suspects currently in custody come from Chorkuh. In fact, it is entirely possible that Bayat is nothing more than a rural criminal gang with a fancy name.
Still, the overall picture is far from reassuring. Hizb ut-Tahrir, which espouses radical goals while eschewing radical methods, appears to be on the rise in Tajikistan. (At the same news conference where he discussed Bayat, prosecutor Rahimov told journalists that 33 criminal cases involving Hizb ut-Tahrir have been opened in Soghd Region in the first quarter of 2004.) Deputy Prime Minister Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda recently called the spread of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Tajikistan a threat to the stability of the country and the region, RFE/RLâs Tajik Service reported on 17 May.
The question for now is whether Bayat should even be considered in evaluating this larger picture. Views diverge widely on Hizb ut-Tahrir, but no one disputes its existence. Instead, disagreements arise over the extent of the threat it poses and the possibility that Central Asian governments are using this threat as an excuse to jail potential troublemakers. With Bayat, we still lack basic information. The excursion above shows that, with a subject as charged as Islamic extremism, a lack of basic information is not necessarily an obstacle to far-reaching conclusions.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/06/2004 1:32:02 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Every member of al-Qaeda is required to make a "blood oath" (bayat) to Osama bin Laden. As for the Hizbis, they practice violent jihad where they can get away with it, and a non-violent version when they can't. Al-Mujahiroun is a breakaway from Hizb. The following (no link) was posted by the Balochistan Post.
Letter to the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal from Hizb ut Tahrir:
Legislation in a democratic system requires a 51% majority, a condition which contradicts the Islamic ruling system. Making the acceptance by the majority of the people, or their representatives, a necessary condition for implementing the commandments of Allah (subhanahu wa ta'ala) and His Messenger (sallAllaho alayhi wa sallam) is in reality snatching sovereignty from the hands of Allah and passing it on to man. However, Allah (subhanahu wa ta'ala) has not given man any right to make law.
"It is not fitting for a believer, man or woman, that when a matter has been decided by Allah and His Messenger, to have any option about their decision." [Qur'an Al-Ahzab 33:36]
In reality, the biggest obstacle to the implementation of Islam in Pakistan over the past fifty years has been the democratic principle of majority approval as a condition for law. And today this condition will be an obstacle in your way. In the Islamic ruling system, the Khilafah, the responsibility of the Khaleefah is only to implement the laws of Allah (subhanahu wa ta'ala). For this, the Khaleefah neither needs the approval of the majority of the Majlis-e-Ummah nor any other type of ratification. Instead of becoming a part of this system by participating in the polling process, you should account the rulers and pressurise them to leave democracy and re-establish the Khilafah. And it is this Khilafah which will call the Islamic Ummah to enter under its authority so that the Muslims can once again run their affairs under a single leader.
In a system of vested interests such as democracy, principles are sacrificed through sugar-coated terms like "compromise", "flexibility", "adjustment" and "national interest". You were only selected so as to look after the Ummah's affairs by Islam and liberating the Muslims from the American Raj. So, any kind of compromise, flexibility or deviation from these principles would amount to treachery against the Ummah. We hope that you, as those who aspire to uphold Islamic politics, will avoid any kind of compromise of the principles of Islam. Therefore, whether the issue is US bases and FBI offices on Pakistani soil; or interest (riba) and submission to the IMF and World Bank; or corporate farming and privatisation of oil, gas and minerals; or the change of the educational curriculum and the selling off of health and education sector - your responsibility is to raise your voice against all such issues and to stop the rulers from taking steps that are anti-Ummah and anti-Islam. You should only demand the comprehensive, complete and immediate implementation of Islam. This is because Islam is a complete, whole and integrated system and so Islam can neither properly function in a gradual way and nor can it be implemented in parts. And although gradual or partial implementation of Islam seems better than nothing, Islam has totally rejected this compromise. The Messenger of Allah (sallAllaho alayhi wa sallam) rejected the offers of ruling made by Qur'aysh and other Arab tribes because they made the compromise of Islam a condition. This was even though at that time Muslims were subjugated to kafir oppression and the offer seemed far better than nothing. Also, the Qur'an strictly commands the complete implementation of Islam and warns us of torment and chastisement if we are seduced into leaving any part of Islam by following people's desires.
"And rule between them by what Allah has revealed and do not follow their vain desires, but beware of them lest they seduce you from part of what Allah has revealed to you." [Qur'an Al-Maidah 5:48]. And the Qur'an has strictly forbidden the partial implementation of Islam and compromising its integrity.
"Do you believe in a part of the Book and reject the rest? What else, then should be the retribution of those among you who do this than that they should live in degradation in the present life, and that on the Day of Resurrection they should be sent to the severest chastisement?" [Qur'an Al-Baqarah 2:85]
We pray that you are able to fulfil the responsibility of looking after the Ummah's affairs that you have been burdened with. And that you may be able to proudly declare before Allah (subhanahu wa ta'ala) in the Hereafter that you never compromised the principles and laws of Islam, neither to seek the pleasure of America and other kafir powers nor for worldly gains and recognition. Furthermore, we call upon you to adopt the method of Prophet Muhammad (sallAllaho alayhi wa sallam) to re-establish the Khilafah. This is the method by which the Messenger of Allah (sallAllaho alayhi wa sallam) successfully established the first Islamic State in Madinah. We pray to Allah (subhanahu wa ta'ala) that He may use us all to re-establish the Khilafah which will unify the Ummah once again and restore the Ummah to its rightful position as a witness over all of humankind. Ameen!
U.S. Marines suspended assistance and reconstruction projects in a suburb of the restive city of Fallujah on Sunday, after an interpreter working for the Marines was abducted. Three masked men seized the interpreter, Hassan Abdul-Hadi, when he went to a restaurant to buy tea for his comrades, Iraqi officer Ziad Abed said. A Marine quick response team cordoned the restaurant in Karma, about 40 miles west of the capital Baghdad, said Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. A house-to-house search failed to find the translator.
Byrne demanded Abdul-Hadiâs safe return in a meeting of local officials Sunday. "Hassan is a father of small children, he is not a member of the military but a civilian who is helping bridge the communication gap here," Byrne told the elders. All assistance and rebuilding projects will be "suspended indefinitely until Hassan is found," Byrne said. He urged the elders to "use their influence" to get the interpreter back. "Those who kidnapped Hassan represent the worst of this society," Byrne told the elders. "I need you to find him."
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/06/2004 12:36 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Sounds like something Al-Q would to to maintain tension in the area and interfere with the transistion. We need to work with the local fallujah forces to find him (isn't that what they are for?).
#3
you know this whole thing strikes me as a big psyops game. How about we get Bremer to show up with a necklace of human ears, go up to the elders and repeat the request for his return with a big helter skelter look in his eyes.
#4
Helter skelter eyes, good one, #3! I'd like to embellish your ideas, if I may, by suggesting that Bremer's necklace be comprised of human ears interspersed with sow's ears and he should be carrying in one hand a dog leash with tufts of black stringy human hair stuck to it...
Posted by: rex ||
06/06/2004 13:36 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Great Ideas guys; you all are hitting all three cherries today, however if we did nothing for the top officials for TGC when they were assassinated, the Brass won't get pissed off over 'just a local'!
#6
Your point would be well taken smn but for one thing, the ones who will get pissed off are not the "Brass" but rather the several battalions of Marines surrounding Fallujah. Marines do not take kindly to perverts kidnapping people attached to their units. An unsatisfactory resolution to this could lead to foreshortened lifespans for a number of thugs residing in Fallujah.
JPost Reg Reqâd - EFL
The Tel Aviv District Court on Sunday sentenced senior Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti to five consecutive life sentences and an additional 40 years in prison. Barghouti, who was convicted last month of the murder of five civilians and of involvement in four terror attacks, was handed 20 years for attempted murder and another 20 for membership in a terror organization. *snip*
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/06/2004 12:06:56 PM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Oh my gosh, they'll leave him there 40 years after he dies?
Posted by: Jennifer ||
06/06/2004 12:20 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"Consecutive"
Gotta love that word. Yassin and Rantissi should have been so lucky ... NOT.
It means he will stay in prison until he dies and then during his next four reincarnations (the next one will be a as a dung fly) and he will be released on his fourtieth birthday of the fifth. Ooops he is a muslim so he doesn't reincarnate.
Mustafa used to fear little but a periodic Israeli army raid as he dug arms smuggling tunnels into the Gaza Strip for the Palestinian revolt. Now he has to worry about the neighbours too. Running guns and contraband through tunnels into Rafah refugee camp from nearby Egypt was once both profitable and patriotic in Palestinian eyes. It put rare cash into a poor economy and fuelled "resistance" to Israeli occupation in Gaza. But communal support for the smugglers has cooled as Israeli forces have razed more and more parts of Rafah said to be hiding tunnels. With 13,000 people now homeless, many of whom say they concealed nothing, residents are turning on the tunnel men. "Many people now oppose our work. I know of cases where people have noticed others digging a tunnel and they have assaulted them," said Mustafa, a veteran Rafah tunnel builder who declined to give his family name.
You mean the Israeli policy worked?
No, no! That can't be it! There has to be some other factor...
Residents have staged no public protests against the tunnel networks for fear of seeming disloyal to the uprising in Rafah, which is dominated by militant factions. But the tunnel issue has become the talk of the town, with many residents privately urging tunnel builders to cease, and threatening them and their families if they do not. Some tunnels have been blocked off by irate residents concerned their adjacent homes might be bulldozed or blown up during the next Israeli army sweep. Many in the sprawling cinder-block camp of 80,000 people fret that the spread of tunnels has given raiding Israelis leeway to flatten any housing in their way. U.N. refugee agency figures put the number of demolished houses at 1,300 since the uprising began in 2000. The Israeli army says it has found and destroyed 90 tunnels in that time. "Tunnels are harmful," said Mariam Abu Shaqfa, 50, whose house was severely damaged in last month's incursion even though, she insisted, there were no tunnels in her district. Tunnels are mostly dug by night, but by day too if inside a house. Builders once equipped only with short-handled hoes now have access to earth-moving machines. The tunnel men say only light arms can be slipped through shafts measuring some 60 cm (two feet) across and 80 cm (two and a half feet) high -- too small for heavy weaponry like Katyusha rockets which Israel says the militants are trying to import. The tunnels cost an average of $20,000 (11,000 pounds) and several months of secret, backbreaking, often dangerous work to complete -- two builders were killed recently when one caved in on them.
Another claim for Mutual of Gaza.
Tunnellers sometimes stay up to 12 hours underground thanks to equipment ensuring a supply of clean air. "We may eat and drink tea and even smoke cigarettes," said Mustafa. "We bring in the stuff -- Kalashnikov (assault rifles), bullets, explosives -- and then we approach factions who want to buy. It was never an easy job. You go underground and you do not know whether a tunnel could collapse on your head. We're also marked for death by Israel."
So the money must be good...
The hardest part of their job now, the tunnel men say, is to dispose of dirt from their digs without alerting the neighbours. Growing community opposition, together with increasing Israeli incursions that have progressively reduced entire neighbourhoods to rubble, have slowed down tunnel construction and with it the arrival of fresh arms and ammunition. Prices are soaring as a result. The cost of a Kalashnikov bullet has doubled recently to 30 shekels (3.50 pounds). Tunnel builders said they were hearing that Egypt was rounding up cohorts on the other side of the border and meting out long prison terms. Israel has long called for such a crackdown by Egypt, pointing to their 1979 peace treaty. The tunnels, some of which date to the 1980s era of regional calm, have also brought an influx of canned food and cigarettes from Egypt that fill Rafah's street markets, earning handsome livings for local smugglers. "If tunnels were only to support the resistance with arms, we would sacrifice all our houses but that hasn't been the case," said Nasr al-Abed, a camp neighbourhood committeeman.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/06/2004 1:47:32 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Many in the sprawling cinder-block camp of 80,000 people fret that the spread of tunnels has given raiding Israelis leeway to flatten any housing in their way.
#3
I see Rooters is into plagairism. This is a light rewrite of an article Haaretz ran about a week ago.
Posted by: Phil B ||
06/06/2004 2:49 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Omigosh ... that single AK bullet costs (as of 2004.06.06 07:55:50 GMT) US$6.43 ...
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
06/06/2004 3:56 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Well it's not all bad. At least some of these gents are learning a trade. You can make $25 an hour if you're properly unionized and can get to West Va.
#6
wow - gun sex is even more expensive than the real thing!
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/06/2004 11:04 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Saw in a report some weeks ago that the big fear was the smuggling of Strela shoulder held anti aircraft missiles. The Israelis caught some smugglers a few months ago with them going from Sinai directly into Israel.
#8
But the tunnel issue has become the talk of the town, with many residents privately urging tunnel builders to cease, and threatening them and their families if they do not.
I'll bet the terrorists weren't counting on having their neighbors make terrorist threats against them. Oh wait ... it's what they all do for a living.
"If tunnels were only to support the resistance with arms, we would sacrifice all our houses but that hasn't been the case," said Nasr al-Abed, a camp neighbourhood committeeman.
Welcome to the hard realities of what happens when you let gangsters take control of your politics, Nasr.
and how is it only 1300 homes since 2000? the paleos were whinning about a 1000 homes with the latest rafah...
Posted by: Dan ||
06/06/2004 15:04 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Is it possible that the common Palestinian, the one we often hear about, the innocent one who doesn't participate in the intifada, the one we thought was mythical - is it possible that he exists, and is finally getting a clue?
You know, that might be the best thing. If that moderate Palestinian does exist, and if he's finally getting fed up with Arafat and Hamas and those terrorist organizations, if he finally rises up - that could quite possibly be the first popular mass movement in Arab history. Maybe they might turn things around through a civil war. (I know, that's extremely optimistic, but I suppose anything's possible . . .)
Posted by: The Doctor ||
06/06/2004 15:45 Comments ||
Top||
US troops and warplanes attacked Taliban rebels besieging a remote checkpoint in southern Afghanistan killing eight militants. American forces also skirmished with guerrillas who attacked them with rockets near the countryâs eastern border, the US military said. The battle for the checkpoint was in Daychopan district of Zabul province, said provincial military commander Naimatullah Khan. Khan said Afghan troops used a satellite phone to call for help when a band of 200 Taliban crept down from the mountains and opened fire on the checkpoint in an area called Hazar Boosth. âCoalition planes bombed the area, and after a four-hour gunfight, the Taliban pulled back into the mountains,â Khan said. âEight of them were killed. Weâve gathered up their bodies and guns.â
US military spokesman Lt Col Tucker Mansager confirmed that a group of Marines backed by warplanes had clashed on Friday evening with a âfairly substantial number of militantsâ. Mansager placed the battle some 60 kilometres southeast of Tirin Kot, approximately the same area described by Khan. He had no word on any casualties or details of the fighting.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/06/2004 1:27:11 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
The U.S. military has obtained evidence of Islamic recruitment in Saudi Arabia for the Sunni insurgency in Iraq as well as for Al Qaida-inspired attacks on Kurdish and Shiâite communities in that country. U.S. military sources said the arrest of suspected Al Qaida operatives as well as raids of insurgency strongholds have turned up evidence of a significant Saudi presence among the thousands of foreign Muslim volunteers in Iraq. The sources said Al Qaida recruitment for operatives has taken place in most Saudi cities. Many of the Saudis entered Iraq through the northern border of the kingdom where they were provided with new identities, the sources said. Others entered Iraq via Jordan or Syria and were recruited for attacks against both the U.S.-led coalition as well as non-Sunni communities in Iraq. Many of the Saudi insurgents were centered in the Iraqi city of Qusaybah, the sources said. They said the Saudis, many of whom carry forged travel documents, have been joined by Afghans, Egyptians, Iranians, Jordanians, Kuwaitis, Palestinians and Yemenis to participate in the insurgency in Iraq.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/06/2004 1:20:30 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
I don't 'get it'. If every man, woman, and child on Earth has a unique set of fingerprints; how can "new identities" be given? Are they refunding or swapping these prints or what? Are the Saudis not printing all inbound and outbound traffic? I'm sorry... looking over the rainbow again.
#5
mr. claymore should be waiting for those sneaking in
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/06/2004 11:33 Comments ||
Top||
#6
using finger prints would work if we had a database of these asshats - but last i heard they do not register with the FBI. if we could cover every inch then there would be no need
Iraq's new president said in remarks published Saturday that free elections were needed as soon as possible so that the country does not become a U.S. "puppet." Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer, a Sunni Muslim critic of the occupation, was named to the largely ceremonial post June 1 after Iraqi officials prevailed in their choice for president over the candidate favored by the United States. He told Munich's Focus magazine he hoped that the United Nations would support "free, fair and transparent elections" as planned by January 31, 2005. "The sooner the better," he said in the interview printed in German. "For decades Iraq was the play toy of various dictators. Now it should not be permitted to be the puppet of the great powers. Therefore it is absolutely necessary to bring the power back to the Iraqi people as soon as possible." Though al-Yawer said elections should be supervised by the United Nations, he emphasized "one thing must be very clear: from now on decisions are ours."
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/06/2004 1:21:00 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Ohh, I see it coming...thousands of eager voters lined up to get to the voting booth(with the intention of supporting Al Sadr sympathizers), just to be blown up by Car bombs to disrupt the progress!!
Isn't that one of the main reasons we are there? Removing Saddam was the easy part. Facilitating free elections where the people of Iraq choose their government is the more difficult part. At this point, it is the most important goal of the mission, with the Saddam removal part being already accomplished. A free government elected by the Iraqi people is the one event most feared by the al Qaeda types, and hence the all out effort to prevent it.
Don't fall prey to the pessimism that the Iraqi people will elect a despotic government. They won't. January 31, 2005 will be seen in the future as a turning point, but in truth the turning point began with the decision to address the problem of a Saddam led Iraq.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said Saturday that Iraq's new prime minister has written a detailed letter to members of the U.N. Security Council spelling out the relationship between the new Iraq interim government and U.S.-led military forces. The letter from Iyad Allawi addresses one of the thorniest issues in the June 30 handover of authority to an Iraqi government. President Bush has said the new government will have full sovereignty, but the United States plans to retain command of its military forces in the country. Powell, briefing reporters aboard Air Force One, said Allawi's letter proposes setting up Iraqi committees that will monitor and work closely with a U.S.-led coalition forces throughout the nation. It makes clear that Iraq will have jurisdiction over its own military forces, but not that of other nations, including the United States, said Powell, who was accompanying Bush on a trip from Rome to Paris. "Every nation retains sovereignty over their own forces," he said.
That's it. We have what we need.
U.S.-led coalition forces will keep the new Iraqi military committees posted on what they are doing and planning, including giving a heads-up on "sensitive operations," he said. If there are disagreements, they will be "taken up to a higher level," Powell said. Powell said the Allawi letter makes clear that Iraq wants a coalition military presence to remain. He called it "a recognition that they can't provide for their own security yet." U.S. officials have said that Iraqis would have the right to ask coalition forces to leave. Powell said Allawi's letter goes a long way to meeting the concerns of Security Council members over military arrangements. France, which has veto power on the council, has stressed the need for Iraq's government to have authority over its security. "This is a major step forward," Powell said. "Receipt of the Allawi letter pushes us much closer to the finish line." Powell said copies of the letter would be delivered to council members as they try to come up with a final version of a U.N. resolution dealing with Iraq's relationship with international forces. The resolution would be expected to make a reference to the letter.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/06/2004 1:06:58 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
..."coalition forces will keep the new Iraqi military committees posted on what they are doing and planning, including giving a heads-up on "sensitive operations,""...
Dollars to dougnut holes that these committees will be rife with 5th columnists.
A Chadian rebel group yesterday called on Algeria to pick up some 15 members of an Algerian militant group it was holding. The Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad (MDJT) believe they captured Algerian Amari Saifi, known as El-Para and the second in command of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), in March along with more than a dozen followers. âWe have informed Algeria but no one has come yet to pick them up,â said Abubakar Rajab, a French-based MDJT spokesman. âIt seems to be a technical problem because the Algerians do not want to enter Chadian territory to collect them. But we believe a quick solution can still be found,â he said. There are no independent confirmation of the MDJT claims of holding the GSPC members, but diplomats and military officials said they were credible following clashes in early March between the Chadian army and the GSPC in which 43 rebels were killed.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/06/2004 12:55:32 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Pakistani authorities have warned Western aid groups and the U.N. refugee agency to strengthen security against threats of Taliban attacks, officials said Saturday. The warning was directed to offices in southwestern Baluchistan province. Mullah Hashim Sagzai, a formerly unknown Taliban fighter now believed to live in a refugee camp in Baluchistan, was identified as the lead planner of suicide plots against the non-governmental organizations.
With any luck we'll only hear about him one more time.
"Only those NGOs (non-governmental organizations) will be targeted where U.S.-British nationals are working," said the Afghan Refugees Organization, a Pakistani government agency which is responsible for security at refugee camps in Baluchistan. The organization, which coordinates between aid groups and the provincial government, issue the warning in a letter Saturday to U.N. High Commissionioner for Refugees and five groups â U.S.-based Mercy Corps International, British-based Global Partner, Irelandâs Concern, the French Tear Fund, and the Association of Medical Doctors of Asia. Babar Baluch, an official of the UNHCR in Baluchistan, told The Associated Press that the agencies had ordered their employees not to report for work Monday as a security precaution and to await further orders. "Credible threats could hamper relief activities for Afghan refugees in the province," Baluch said. Officials from the other groups either refused comment or were not available.
"We will say no more!"
Aftab Jamal, assistant secretary at Pakistanâs Home Department, which controls provincial security, said intelligence information about the planned suicide attack prompted the alert. "Sometimes intelligence information is ignored, which increases dangers," Jamal told the AP. "Police have been informed to secure the movement of foreigners." Sagzai, the purported Taliban plotter, is believed to be living in a refugee camp in Girdi Jungle, about 125 miles west of Quetta near the Afghan border. The letter said his operatives were seeking access to the premises of the aid agencies. "In view of the above, you are requested that security ... may be beefed up to deter anti-social elements from carrying out their agenda," the letter said. "Strict vigilance is also warranted in this regard."
On Wednesday, five relief workers, including three foreigners, working for Medecins Sans Frontieres were killed. A purported Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility. Medecins Sans Frontieres, known in English as Doctors Without Borders, suspended its operations in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, a U.S. military spokesman, Lt. Col. Tucker Mansager, said Saturday that U.S. commanders were "assessing that attack to see exactly what it means for our further troop deployment," but didnât say if American forces would be sent to that area.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/06/2004 12:35:32 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
On Wednesday, five relief workers, including three foreigners, working for Medecins Sans Frontieres were killed. A purported Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility.
The Taliban is truly a wicked, evil organization, but it is admired by many Moslems. For example, it is zealously admired and praised by the staff of Jihad Unspun.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
06/06/2004 0:55 Comments ||
Top||
#2
4. Juni 2004
Medecins Sans Frontieres leaves Afghanistan
The relief organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) will close down its programme in Afghanistan for the time being, after a Norwegian doctor and four other MSF workers were killed in an ambush in the Badghis province on Wednesday.
The Norwegian doctor, Egil Kristian Tynaes (62), was on a four-month leave from his position as chief surgeon at a Bergen hospital, and he was killed on the last day of work in Afghanistan. It was his second assignment in Afghanistan for MSF.
Tynaes was married with five children.
Afghanistan's Prime Minister, Hamid Karzai, has condemned the ambush and the killings, and so has the United Nations.
An official in Chechnyaâs Kremlin-backed administration says that seven Russian soldiers died there over the last 24 hours in rebel attacks and mine explosions. Speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, he said that guerilla attacks against Russian outposts killed five of the federal servicemen. The raids wounded another six. He said that a landmine concealed on a tree in the Chechen capital, Grozny, killed another serviceman, and that another died when a Russian military vehicle came under fire near the village of Argun in eastern Chechnya. The official said that federal artillery fired at suspected rebel bases in the republicâs southern mountains, and at least 200 people were detained on suspicion of rebel links in security sweeps across Chechnya.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/06/2004 12:37:53 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
A little off the subject, but conerning Chirac's comments about how history does not repeat itself is blown completly out of the water by what is going in in Caucasus. I mean my goodness how long have the Russian been getting killed there?
4 - 5 hundred years now. Different century different reasons. What an idiot Chirac is and story's like this just prove it after what he said today.
Seven militants have been destroyed in Chechnya over the past 24 hours. A task force of federal troops made an ambush in the woods east of the Kharachoi village, the Vedeno district and trapped a gang of four killing all of the gunmen. The federals seized from the site of the shootout three submachine guns, 20 hand grenades, two grenade launchers and about 3,500 cartridges.
Another bandit group was spotted by a federal troopsâ unit 10 kilometres off the Serzhen-Yurt village, the Shali district. Three gunmen were killed in the ensuing fire-fight, another two managed to flee and hide in the forest. Three Kalashnikov submachine guns, several grenades and a Kenwood radio station were confiscated from the scene, spokesman for the Regional Operational Staff for Control over Antiterrorist Operation in the North Caucasus Col. Ilya Shabalkin told Itar-Tass on Saturday.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/06/2004 12:39:36 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
US President George Bush today said coalition troops would remain in Iraq beyond June 30 at the request of the interim Iraqi government. Bush was speaking after meeting his French counterpart Jacques Chirac in Paris to discuss a new UN resolution on the handover of sovereignty in Iraq. ââMultinational forces will remain in Iraq to help this new government succeed in its vital work,ââ Bush told a joint news conference with Chirac, saying such a move came ââat the request of the new government, at the request of the (Iraqi) prime ministerââ. Bush said the US-led coalition in Iraq and the newly-formed government in Baghdad had exchanged letters detailing the conditions under which foreign forces would remain in the country after the restoration of Iraqi sovereignty on June 30. But the US president gave no indication when those forces might withdraw - an omission that is one of Chiracâs main objections to the current draft of the UN resolution. Chirac stressed that the thorny ââissue of security arrangements between the Iraqi government and the multinational forces still needs to be worked outââ. He also insisted there was ââno alternativeââ to a UN resolution in order to restore peace to Iraq. While both leaders emphasised their common views on Iraq it was clear major differences remain over the way forward after June 30. Chirac said ââdisorderââ reigned in Iraq, calling the situation there ââvery precariousââ.
Chirac's been sampling his own product again.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/06/2004 12:15:30 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Alright then, lets see how long the local police stay firm and on duty, 'protecting' they're own people. I bet they will abandon they're posts and scramble like scared rabbits when the first rpg is launched!
#2
Mr Chirac, sir, most humble me, noble you, you look fantastic.
Could you, would you, pray tell, tell us about the oil for french food program. Just a few words. Something, anything, a twitch, a knod, a wink, a smile, an account.
Nothing ya say, Well said then! Your a man then and may you take a bow. Clapp, clapp.
Excerpted from a WND piece by Paul Sperry EFL'd some more, RTWT as they say. AoS.
Buried in the middle of the scathing Army report on Abu Ghraib prison abuses is an unrelated item that has received little attention in the press, but one that is no less disturbing. "The Iraqi guards at Abu Ghraib demonstrate questionable loyalties, and are a potentially dangerous contingent," wrote Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba in the 53-page executive summary to his investigative report. "These guards have furnished the Iraqi criminal inmates with contraband, weapons and information," he said. "Additionally, they have facilitated the escape of at least one detainee." U.S. military intelligence officials say spies have infiltrated local security forces, and have tipped off the insurgents to U.S. convoy routes and even the locations of visiting U.S. officials. And they question the wisdom of forging closer partnerships with local forces. We donât have much of a choice.
Nonetheless, the administration is pushing ahead with plans to train a total of about 260,000 Iraqi soldiers, police and other security personnel by the first quarter of next year to help stabilize the country and eventually start replacing U.S. troops.
If we don't do that, we'll never turn their country over to them. Or if we do, somebody else will take it away from them.
But U.S. officials warn that some local forces may view their American trainers as the enemy, not the insurgents; and sharing too much information with them could expose American soldiers to even more treachery. Some 80 percent of the 816 GIs killed in Iraq have died since major combat operations were declared over in May 2003. Nearly half of the casualties have occurred since Saddam Husseinâs capture. Not often does WorldNetDaily sound like WaPo.
They say the Pentagon is even planning to share intelligence-gathering and interrogation techniques with Iraqi defense forces. "Handing over our interrogation techniques to the IDF is insane," one official told WorldNetDaily, "because we all know the Iraqi forces are rife with Baathists and former ISS," or Iraqi Intelligence Services members, who could leak the tactics to the enemy.
I doubt we're giving them everything. We don't give most of our own guys everything...
The loyalty of local Arabic interpreters is also an issue. A new Army training course warns soldiers gathering intelligence in Iraq to be wary of their interpreters and limit the amount of operations information shared with them. "If your interpreter is a local national, he may be providing information on your operations to someone else," say the course materials obtained by WorldNetDaily. "Operations security is paramount, so even if he seems to be a nice guy, limit what you tell him." I donât have a problem with that. It sounds like weâre going in with our eyes open. Maybe if we had more Idaho natives that could speak fluent Arabic with a Baghdadi accent.
In an internal report prepared last year by the Center for Army Lessons Learned in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., investigators in Iraq observed that local interpreters seemed to be holding back information from soldiers during interrogations of detainees. "The foreign national would give a 10-minute answer, and the interpreter would translate âyesâ or âno,â" said the trip report, authored by Lt. Col. Robert L. Chamberlain, a top Army intelligence trainer. "Who knows what agenda the interpreter has?" So tape each interrogation and excerpt the detainees answer to each questionable translation. By excerpt, I mean remove both the question and the suspect interpretation. Play the detainee for two other randomnly selected interpreter and compare the answers. Convert interpreters into detainees based on the results.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/06/2004 12:30:10 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Al-Qaida is spreading its tentacles in Iraq and has "a serious" network in that country, says U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. In an interview with CNN Saturday, Rumsfeld said: "The al-Qaida network in Iraq is a serious network. Itâs a global network." He said al-Qaida was also recruiting volunteers from various parts of the world for carrying out terrorist acts in Iraq. Rumsfeld said Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who he believes heads the network of foreign terrorists in Iraq, has been affiliated with al-Qaida for sometime. He said Zarqawi may not have taken the oath to Osama Bin Laden but "thatâs a technicality." "I mean, clearly Zarqawi has been an affiliate with the al-Qaida organization."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/06/2004 12:30:10 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Headline, "Zarqawi not technically connected to AQ.
#3
When Zarqawi is caught nothing would say we're serious more than him being publically drawn and quartered. That would give me a warm and fuzzy feeling.
Maybe its time Rummy let them know the gloves are off. Round up as many as possible and give them the General Pershing treatment.Let a few of them drag stories of that back to their mud hovels.
Man I hate those guys.
An Algerian Islamic militant group with ties to al Qaeda said it carried out an ambush that killed 10 soldiers and wounded 16 and declared its holy war on secular authorities was not over. The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) said its fighters had staged the ambush on an army convoy on Wednesday, hitting it in broad daylight on a highway in the restive Kabylie region in eastern Algeria. Three more people -- a police official and two members of a paramilitary unit -- were killed in Kabylie on Saturday, local journalists said.
Western diplomats said it was too early to tell whether the attacks signaled a general escalation in rebel activity, but added the situation in the Berber region was clearly deteriorating. "The terror attacks look well planned and involving dozens of rebels. Quite daring," a diplomat said. "While hypocrites were hopeful about the disappearance of the jihad and the mujahideen (GSPC members), mujahideen forces carried out several military operations," the GSPC said in a statement on its Web site dated June 3. "On Wednesday...they killed 10 and injured another 16," a statement obtained by Reuters said. Reuters could not verify its authenticity. The GSPC said it had ambushed another convoy only a few days earlier, killing four soldiers and injuring 11. Suspected Islamic militants killed a police superintendent on Saturday near Azazga, a town 100 km (60 miles) east of the capital Algiers, and killed two members of a paramilitary unit in Jijel, local journalists told Reuters.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/06/2004 12:08:03 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Thousands of tribesmen on Saturday launched an operation to capture al-Qaeda suspects in theSouth Waziristan Agency, Pakistanâs remote western tribal region bordering Afghanistan, a senior security official said. Mehmood Shah, security chief of the tribal area, said that the troops will extend all help to the tribal army Lashkar if the al-Qaeda men and their local supporters preferred to fighting with it. He added the Lashkar is the final option with the tribesmen and a military operation will follow if the Lashkar fails to achieve the result. Witnesses said that thousands of armed tribesmen of the Ahmedzai tribe traveled in about 300 vehicles to search the border areas.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/06/2004 12:06:18 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Even though I am skeptical to the 6th power, I say good luck and good hunting. (**prays for a miracle**)
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/06/2004 0:45 Comments ||
Top||
#2
This operation might be successful.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
06/06/2004 0:56 Comments ||
Top||
#3
A chorus of pigs might whistle "Roll Out the Barrel"...
Posted by: Fred ||
06/06/2004 1:08 Comments ||
Top||
#4
It's the big one. The hammer will fall, ten, nine eight, ect...
#5
YEA RIGHT! We all know the 'baddies' were 'telegraphed' 10 days in advance of the supposed offensive; I bet they even bought the tickets for their escape!
#8
This is what I want Mehmood Shah, to tell the world: "We have Osama cornered in his subterrained cave...he's has been demanded to surrender as soon as he finishes his can of beans! Come out with his hands up, not to explode. We will insure his safe turnover to the Americans!"
#11
Let's hope this time Pakistan remembered that they should offer to pay them only for successful captures or kills and not before the operation begins like they usually do.
#14
There are still al-Qaeda in Waziristan? I thought the Pak army had 'em surrounded back in April and captured them all. Hmmmm. The thought just occured to me who taught the Saudis how to surround and capture the bad guyz.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Saudi Arabia has failed to enforce sanctions against nationals and organizations that finance Al Qaida. Saudi and U.S. officials acknowledged that a ban announced by the kingdom in 2003 on the transfer of charity funds abroad has been ignored. They said a prominent Saudi fired from a leading charity has continued to relay funds to Al Qaida and related groups outside the kingdom. It was the first time that Riyad and Washington admitted the failure of Saudi enforcement of anti-Al Qaida measures. Over the last two years, the Bush administration has repeatedly praised Saudi decisions to block financing to Al Qaida and related groups. But statements by U.S. and Saudi officials as well as a U.S. Treasury Department communique portrayed a Saudi government unable or unwilling to implement its ban on financiers of Al Qaida. They described a Saudi government-sponsored and -administered charity that ordered its employees to flout the kingdom's decision to halt activities abroad and conceal financing of Al Qaida and related groups under a different guise.
